A proposal to put a new skate park on a site in Queen’s Park doesn’t mean the bubble has burst on plans for a replacement for the Arenex.
Last June, city council approved the development of a 24,000-square-foot facility consisting of a stretched fabric membrane over a rigid frame, similar to the Poirier Forum in Coquitlam. In addition to building “the bubble” facility on the old tennis courts/reservoir site near Queen’s Park Stadium, the plan included modular buildings to provide space for washrooms, change areas and administrative areas.
Nearly a year later, the bubble has yet to be built. The Arenex was home to a variety of recreational programs, including gymnastics, trampoline, children's drop-ins, badminton, indoor soccer, volleyball, ball hockey, basketball and pickleball.
“We are still moving ahead and working on that,” Mayor Jonathan Cote told the Record. “It has taken a little bit longer than we had initially hoped.”
A staff report on the project is expected to be presented to city council within the next month.
“The process has taken longer than we had hoped, and our initial procurement process didn’t lead us to a successful proponent. We are going to have to take another go at it,” Cote said. “The city is still committed to moving forward with that program and ultimately replacing the much-needed Arenex complex.”
While the city has been able to secure temporary locations for programs that had been offered at the Arenex, Cote said the city is still committed to finding a more permanent solution.
Last year, the city has approved a $3.5-million budget for the project, with the majority of the money coming from the proceeds of insurance from the loss of the 10,000-square-foot Arenex. The Arenex was destroyed after its roof collapsed under the weight of snow on Dec. 19, 2016.
On April 9, council considered a staff report that recommended building a new skate park on the former Arenex site. Council, however, voted to locate the facility on the tennis courts/former reservoir land if it’s technically feasible – the same site where the interim replacement facility for the Arenex is planned to go.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said a skate park wouldn’t rule out the ability to build an interim replacement facility for the Arenex on that site.
The city has been working on plans to replace the skate park at Mercer Stadium, which is being demolished to pave the way for construction of a new New Westminster Secondary School.
Cote said the reservoir site was originally discounted as a location for the skate park because the city was planning to build “the bubble” there.
“In the last short while we have received information indicating that both of those facilities can actually fit on that site. It’s a large enough site,” he said. “One of the reasons it wasn’t considered earlier was concern that you wouldn’t be able to get both of those facilities on the site, and new information has indicated they should be able to accommodate both those.”
Last spring, the City of New Westminster consulted with the community about whether services once offered in the Arenex should be relocated to an expanded facility at the Canada Games Pool/Centennial Centre site or continue to be offered in a standalone facility.
Cote said that input helped guide some of the programming that’s now proposed as part of the Canada Games Pool/Centennial Community Centre replacement project. He said the new aquatics facility and community centre will provide some additional space for gym and recreational services, but it won’t fully address the need for space for programs that had been offered at the Arenex.
“It was felt that both an expanded recreational component of the Canada Games Pool and what we call the bubble structure were both still necessary to move forward,” he said.
