At long last, a vision that began forming in 2019 has finally been brought to life. Residents across Waterloo Region came together in Kitchener at the Cowan Recreation, where they celebrated its grand opening on Saturday. The project broke ground in the spring of 2024, arriving to the community under two and a half years later and at a cost of $174 million, funded through several years of the city’s budget, provincial and federal funding, and donations from various community partners. Cowan Recreation Centre saw its fair share of fans over the weekend, but possibly none bigger than the newly re-elected mayor of the city it sits in. “This is just an incredible day for the community to see. A project that we’ve been thinking about for a number of years, one that’s been under construction for a few years and opened up today,” Mayor Berry Vrbanovic told CTV News. “You heard the speeches. You saw all the people here. You see everybody who’s in the building today. It really is just a once in a generation opportunity that will have decades of impact for residents of our community.” The 222,000 square foot facility is home to a FIFA-sized indoor turf fieldhouse, a walking track, an aquatic centre with two pools, a quad gymnasium, cricket practice nets, and multipurpose rooms. The quad gymnasium is the first of its kind in Canada to have a glass-floor installed, using LED lights to make several sports playable in the space. Littered throughout the building are some of the core values that the city hopes inspires its residents, such as connecting, competing, and community. “This whole facility is about three key concepts that were part of the vision connecting, competing and developing a sense of belonging, and I think you can see that today, Vrbanovic said. “You’re already feeling it by all the connections that are being made. You’re seeing some friendly competition out there today and in the future we’ll see some real great games and championships, no doubt.” With local teams calling the new facility home, Mandy Bujold, a former Canadian Olympian hailing from Kitchener, understands better than most the kind of impact the space will make on those looking to make their wildest dreams come true. “It’s a place you can call home and I think sometimes we don’t even understand the impact that these facilities have on young kids, on people who are chasing those dreams,” she said. “We see facilities all across the world and sometimes we wish, ‘Oh, I wish we had this or I wish we had that.’ So, it’s really cool to see that the next generation will have that and will have exactly the tools that they need to be able to make it to the highest level.” While Kitchener wanted to give athletes a spot they could bloom, the city’s deputy CAO Michael May said it welcomes more than just those who step onto the court or pitch. “I’m a father of two young athletes who play sports in this community, and we heard it in the speeches today… this facility is actually built to use sport to bring the community together. So, you don’t need to be an athlete to come here. We’ve built special spaces with comfortable couches to encourage people to come and spend time and come back again,” he said. The grand opening event saw boatloads of people tour the centre, with a full-day lineup of events scattered around the facility for families to enjoy. Vrbanovic, often referred to as Mayor Berry, reflected on the journey it took to complete the project, sharing the moments with those he holds closest and works closest with everyday. “This is why we do it. This is why I do it. This is why the people I work with do it, I was so pleased to be able to share this moment on the last day of this term with our existing council,” he said. “It really speaks to the success story of how this council and our staff team have operated together in order to bring this dream to life.” While he suggested he needed a breather after years of overseeing Kitchener’s biggest development ever successfully go up, May detailed how he and the city will keep innovating for the future. “Well, I’m going to take a bit of a break and then we’ve got some other ideas about some community facilities that we can bring to the community that will again bring people together and let them enjoy spending time together,” he told CTV News. Grand opening festivities will continue at Cowan Recreation Centre throughout the week until its finale on Nov. 22.
