LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — After more than 20 years of planning and two and a half years of construction, the Lethbridge and District Exhibition's Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre is officially open.
“I would say there is an enormous sense of relief today, but also excitement and joy for what the future holds for southern Alberta,” said Mike Warkentin, Lethbridge and District Exhibition CEO.
Officials hope the centre will become southern Alberta’s venue of choice and a destination.
The 24,898 sqare metre (268,000 square foot) facility will host provincial, national and international events with a focus on agriculture.
“As soon as you walk into this building there is an absolute change of expectation on what we need to deliver and so we need to live up to that expectation on a minute-by-minute basis,” Warkentin said.
“We need to ensure that world-class events and international events are coming into this community and we're delivering different experiences for southern Alberta and the people that live here," he added.
FINAL PRICE TAG
With the budget set at $70.6 million, the final price tag added up to $76.6 million.
“In the construction window that we built in, which arguably when you talk to all those trades people from the crowd today, they will likely tell you — is the toughest construction window in history to build it (what with) inflationary challenges, trade challenges, supply chain challenges, labour challenges — all of those added up,” Warkentin said.
“We took $9.27 million out of this facility and I don’t think any of you could tell that walking in today. We maintained the absolute functionality of this facility.”
Funding for the project came from the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge County. The province provided nearly $28 million and the federal government's Prairies Economic Development Canada pitched in $3.5 million.
“We predict this facility will have an impact of $90 million per year so that’s an incredible benefit for this area,” said agriculture and irrigation minister R.J. Sigurdson.
“When you look at southern Alberta and what's happening with the modernization of irrigation, with agriculture, with agri-food, this is a huge importance to both the province, but it also showcases a lot of the advances in the sustainability that's happening right now in agriculture,” Sigurdson added.
MAJOR ECONOMIC DRIVER
The centre features four trade halls, four salon rooms, four meeting suites, outdoor patios and state-of-the-art audio-visual system.
Along with hosting large events, Tourism Lethbridge CEO Erin Crane says the centre will be a major economic driver.
“Imagine this place full. It can host events for up to 7,000 people,” Crane said. “Where are all of those people staying? Where are they eating? Where are they spending their evenings when they’re not here at this facility? How are they getting to and from Lethbridge when they come? This is the visitor economy that we’re talking about.”
The project was slated to be completed in early 2023, but supply chain issues and inflation had an impact on timelines, according to Warkentin.
“We wanted to ensure that we didn’t open early to impact the guest experience,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that when this facility opened, we could deliver to that level of expectation when you walk in these doors and that all the amenities were finished and that we were prepared to deliver everything that we said we were going to deliver for the vision of this facility.”
Warkentin added that more than 400 construction jobs were created and 300,000 man hours worked during the construction process.
A public open house for the grand opening is set for Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
