The new Queen’s Park Sportsplex is still on target to meet its budget, but it’s going to be finished a little later than anticipated.
Construction of the new $5.9-million, 12,700-square-foot facility is underway in Queen’s Park. While the city had hoped to have a soft opening for the new facility in the spring, it’s now anticipating the Sportsplex will open in the fall.
“We were hoping for a little bit earlier to have a soft opening, with the programs starting up in September,” said Don Driedger, the city’s manager of major projects. “The target-completion date has sort of shifted from spring to summer.”
Driedger said all of the pile work has been done, the perimeter structure has been formed, the prefabricated insulated panels are done and the steel structure is complete, with half already having been delivered to the site. He said the new timeline is due to issues related to the ground conditions and the weather.
“We are expecting to see that structure go up in March,” he said. “Right now, a lot of it is just the foundational work that has presented a few challenges through the snow and the heavy rain that we had.”
Once complete, the Queen’s Park Sportsplex will accommodate programs offered in the former Queen’s Park Arenex, including gymnastics, trampoline, ball hockey, badminton, volleyball and the Motoring Munchkins drop-in. It’s also been designed to accommodate pickleball, lacrosse, basketball, soccer and other activities.
“From a community standpoint, we are excited to have a home for gymnastics, trampoline and sports,” said Jay Young, the city’s manager of recreation services. “The community has really not had a permanent facility that can house those programs since the collapse of the Arenex. We are excited to be able to provide those programs back to the community.”
Although the facility won’t be ready to have a soft opening in the summer, Young said the city has always anticipated a “full opening” in the fall.
“Because it is a prefab building it will go up rather quickly, faster than your traditional building,” he said.
The Arenex was destroyed after its roof collapsed in December 2016. Instead of putting the Sportsplex on the Arenex site, the city decided to build it on the old reservoir site next to the new skate park.
The City of New Westminster’s original plan was to build a temporary 24,000-square-foot facility that had a fabric cover over a rigid frame, but later decided to build a permanent building that was more environmentally friendly.
“We have morphed along the way from the initial temporary structure, recognizing that the realities of the cost of a temporary structure versus a more permanent structure and wanting to make sure we enhance Queen’s Park as much as possible – going from a fabric structure to a steel-cladded building that I think people will find a little bit more attractive, certainly more energy efficient,” Driedger said. “It’s not going to be something extravagant, but it’s going to be something that will enhance Queen’s Park.”
Environmental features at the Sportsplex include enhanced mechanical systems and LED light fixtures, EV charging stations and an urban solar garden on the roof.
While foundation and weather issues have pushed back the construction timeline, Driedger said they haven’t impacted the budget.
“There is no issues in that regard,” he said. “We are monitoring it closely. We are still looking like we are going to stay within that budget ceiling.”
