By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Exolution: The future of Exhibition Park being conceived over the next eight months

Oct 24, 2018 | 3:00 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Exhibition Park has been a part of Lethbridge for 121 years, and over time upgrades and modernizations have been made but the look has remained the same.

That could all be changing, as officials presented an update to the media on the future of the Exhibition Park & Trade Centre Development Project.

A new 250,000 square foot facility is in the works, with $2.2 million in total design funding available:

– $1.1 million from the Alberta Economic Development & Trade Grant Agreement

– $1.1 million from the City of Lethbridge

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– Based on the project construction funding model of $20 million from three levels of government

– The Albert Economic Development and Trade Grant agreement requires design completion by Feb. 2020

The designs are expected to be completed well in advance of that date, and Chief Executive Officer Rudy Friesen says the important thing for them was to provide an update to the public.

“It’s been a number of years, the work has been on-going here internally, but it’s not always been shared with the general public. We want to make clear we’ve got some work to do. We’ve been funded by the province and the City to undertake some initiatives. Those initiatives are being undertaken and they will bring us to some conclusion in the spring about what this facility is going to look like,” Friesen said.

The plan is for Exhibition Park officials to be back in front of City Council in June of 2019 to provide the completed design documents, and then move to the tender process.

So just what needs to be done over the next eight months to make sure those documents are ready to go?

“A lot of things are conceptual, and a lot of the pricing and sizing is built on very global expectations for the facility. What we’re doing now is getting very specific, we’ve done a lot of work with economic consultants to say, ‘what is this business going to look like in the next five years, our business, and what kind of facilities are we going to need to have to accommodate that business’.

“It’s starting to shape the 250,000 square feet to say we need a little bit more of this, and a little bit more of that, and that’s the type of work we’re doing now,” Friesen explained.

The other part is physical specifications for the buildings because to accurately cost it, they have to know exactly what the ceiling height is, exactly what your square footing is, and that work is starting now and will continue over the course of the next few months.

As that work continues to get the design documents ready for council, Friesen says that conversations will continue with all levels of government with respect to trying to secure some capital funding to make the first phase of the project happen.

“We’re going to continue to do that work and try to secure that capital funding, if that’s ready by June 2019, then effectively the work we’re doing now allows us to go out into the marketplace and say we’re ready to build this,” he continued. “Please quote on your ability to construct this facility in the community, and we will proceed from there and start to develop the project.”

The capital funding is the key to the success of this project moving forward, and the potential business a new facility could attract to the city is a big factor during those discussions.

“We just presented this exact information to the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce this morning, and there are conversations about not necessarily the cost but the investment in the community. What that does to the business environment in terms of growth and opportunities to bring new businesses to the community. That’s absolutely part of this initiative for sure,” Friesen stated.

During a presentation on Wednesday, Oct. 24, the timeline laid out by Friesen looks like this: they could be ground ready by the fall of 2019 if all goes smoothly in front of council.

From there, it could take roughly three years to build the facility.

“That’s the estimation from our project consultants right now, that it’s about a three-year build on a project this size. So that’s what we’re working into the working plan, that we’re going to have this happening over the course of three years on the site.”