A few years ago I found myself in Bilbao in northern Spain. I was in that otherwise unremarkable city for one reason: the Guggenheim Museum of modern and contemporary art. It was a fantastic experience to see Frank Gehry’s famous design and to experience the fascinating collections.

According to Wikipedia, in its first three years since opening in 1997, almost 4 million global tourists visited that museum, helping to generate about €500 million in economic activity. The regional council estimated that the money visitors spent on hotels, restaurants, shops and transport allowed it to collect €100 million in taxes, which more than paid for the building cost.

The ongoing impact of that cultural investment on the region and its economy has been so profound it’s often referred to as The Bilbao Effect.

The truly unique Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), a short but glorious boat ride in ‘Posh Pit’ up the river from Hobart, is one of my favourite places. Since opening about 5 years ago, more than 1.7 million people have visited MONA. Tourism Tasmania reports that MONA visitors spent $719 million in the state for the year up to mid-July 2015. The MONA Effect has been extraordinary for Hobart’s global image and Tasmania’s economy.

So when Nick Mitzevich, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, shared with me his vision of Adelaide Contemporary, he basically “had me at hello”. Think of The Bilbao and MONA Effects combined in a world-class: arts, cultural, educational, recreational, festival, film and restaurant precinct anchored around a remarkable architectural centrepiece. And all of this activating one of the most undervalued sections of the Torrens riverbank, located west of the Morphett Street bridge, on the southern side of the river.

It would, for example, allow the Art Gallery of South Australia’s unique collection of Aboriginal and contemporary art to be shown to best effect, unlocking the true economic potential of the $700 million collection that includes the first indigenous art purchased by an Australian gallery for its artistic merit in 1939.

But Adelaide Contemporary won’t be built in the context of an obscure industrial city in northern Spain, nor a working class suburb in outer Hobart. It will be one of the jewels completing the crown of our Riverbank Precinct. It will create a cultural tourism lightning rod to illuminate our growing international reputation as a vibrant boutique global city. It will also connect our world class health precinct to the rest of our Riverbank icons, completing a stunning multifaceted urban landscape.

And, after all, building it will only cost about one and a half O-Bahn upgrades.

Image Credit: Nick Mitzevich, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia via InDaily.