By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter)

Exhibition Park bulging at the seams – support needed for expansion

Mar 22, 2017 | 8:24 PM

LETHBRIDGE – It’s a point of pride that Lethbridge Exhibition Park is older than the province. However, as it turns 120 this year, the Exhibition’s facilities are more than showing their age.

While the main Pavilion is newer, the other facilities have an average age of over 50-years and some buildings are well over 80-years old. Both the size and age of the facilities have limited the Exhibition’s ability to meet the modern demands of a growing community. 

How limiting the facilities are has been well known for more than a decade, as the Exhibition continues to turn away business due to lack of facility space.  

Early this month (March) Ag Expo alone turned away 47 businesses, which meant $368,000 in lost revenue for the community. For the Home and Garden Trade show, which is now underway, about 25 exhibitors who want to be here were turned away because of lack of space. 

Exhibition Park General Manager, Rudy Friesen, says the loss doesn’t end there.

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“If you multiply that over programs, it’s going to be in the millions of dollars that we’re losing – that’s not including the convention piece, it’s just including the work that we currently do – that convention stuff is not coming to this city at all, and it’s in the millions and millions of dollars.”

Every time exhibitors are turned away, income is lost for local businesses, which reduces their chances for growth and job creation.

Upgrades and expansion of Exhibition Park could appear daunting, but Friesen says they need to focus on one phase at a time and they have zeroed-in on the area which will provide the largest pay-back for the community.

“The original cost would have been $60-Million for phase one, but the cost now will be somewhat less than that – phase one is the Trade and Convention Centre – it’s the expanded trade space for Exhibition Park, plus the high-end meeting space and the break-out capabilities, and the total footprint of that is going to be 250,000 sq feet.”

Exhibition Park has the space to grow and expand. It also has the plans drawn up and approved, as well as $6.2 Million already invested in the redevelopment. However, it can’t move forward without additional funding and that needs to come from government, including the city.

There had originally been a significant stipulation regarding funding that might come from the city. 

In May of 2013, the City Finance Committee passed a resolution that the City would commit $25,000,000.00 in the 2018 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) towards the expansion project, on condition that the balance of the funds needed be obtained from the provincial and Federal governments and that the funding not come from provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiatives. However, that stipulation prevented the Exhibition from seeking other a funding

To alleviate the funding dilemma, on February 27th, the city rescinded the previously mentioned stipulation.

Friesen concedes that, after twelve years of work on the project, it has been a challenge to fund the needed Exhibition expansion and the Board has determined that breaking the project into smaller pieces will make it more manageable.

According to Friesen, the Board is now seeking financing to get the phase-one ‘shovel ready’ and the city’s CIP resolution means it will be easier to seek funding. 

“We’re going to put up half of the money of the ‘shovel ready’ and then once the money comes we will be ready to go – I think our new number on phase one will probably be between $45-Million and $55-Million.”

Friesen acknowledges that all levels of government will need to contribute to get to the needed number and he notes that the expansion at Exhibition Park will be good for the entire community, since the organization is self-supporting and does not require operating funds from the city.

The Exhibition Board has already received a significant number of letters of support from local and area businesses and community groups. It is asking the public to also offer its support by letting City Councilors know that this expansion is good for the entire community.

Residents can register their support online at Exhibition Park.