The Lethbridge and District Exhibition’s new Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre is officially open. A ribbon cutting ceremony on Aug. 10 marked the occasion, more than 20 years in the making.
The 268,000 square foot building will be host to provincial, national and international events and is focused on highlighting the agriculture industry in southern Alberta.
It was originally meant to open in the spring, but Lethbridge and District Exhibition CEO Mike Warkentin says the organization wanted to be sure it was ready to welcome visitors and meet expectations.
“We wanted to ensure that we didn’t open early to impact the guest experience. 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 says.
When construction started in March 2021, the project was budgeted at $70.6 million but the final cost came in at $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 the history to build it — inflationary challenges, trade challenges, supply chain challenges, labour challenges — all of those added up,” Warkentin says, adding the project’s budget did not end up as inflated as many others in the province built within the same time period. “We are exceptionally proud of our ability to manage this project, but more importantly still bring the full value of this facility. 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.”
The provincial government contributed $27.8 million and says it is expected the new venue will contribute more than $90 million annually to the regional economy.
“That’s an incredible benefit to this area,” said RJ Sigurdson, minister of agriculture and irrigation. “That’s why we saw the potential and invested the $27.8 million to make this facility a reality, I because we are focusing on diversifying our agricultural industry right now in the province of Alberta, so this is the chance really to showcase what’s happening in Alberta for technology, research advancement, sustainability — the globe is going to be coming here taking a look at what Alberta has to offer and I think because of that we are going to see an incredible investment in our province in the future.”
The trade centre features a state-of-the-art audio-visual system, 104,000 square feet of trade floor space, four banquet salons, four meeting rooms and outdoor patio areas, which doubles Lethbridge and District Exhibition’s previous hosting capacity.
Other funding came from the City of Lethbridge, Lethbridge County, federal grant money and a 30-year loan secured against the future operations of the venue.
“I would say there is an enormous sense of relief today but also excitement and joy for what the future holds for southern Alberta, for agriculture and for Lethbridge,” Warkentin says. “As soon as you walk into this building, and the public will come in on Saturday, there is an absolute change of expectation on what we need to deliver so we need to live up to that expectation on a minute by minute basis, we need to ensure that world class events and international events are coming in to this community and we are delivering different experiences for southern Alberta.”
Economic contributions from the project have already been seen, with nearly 300,000 hours of trade work put into the construction. The work was done 100 per cent by Alberta contractors.
There will be a public open house to celebrate the grand opening on Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
BACKGROUND: Lethbridge and District Exhibition prepares for new building opening