A new amenities building in Riel Park should increase the city’s capacity for hosting tournaments and other events.
Construction should start sometime in June on the new building.
The building, which should open sometime in 2017, will include four change rooms, two officials rooms, a multi-purpose room and storage. The building will be about 5,210 square feet.
“This is all part of the Riel Recreation Park master plan,” said Margo Brenneis, a park planning specialist with the city’s recreation department. “One of the missing parts of it was an amenities building to link with the artificial turf.”
The addition of the building means a better ability to host back to back events and tournaments, she said.
Melissa Moncur is a project manager with the city’s engineering department. She said the earliest construction start date is June 1. They wanted to make sure any work started after the rodeo.
Sports groups like the rugby club, soccer association and other park users have been consulted, Brenneis said.
“We’ve been doing lots of public engagement with the groups,” she said, including getting to know the various schedules. She said the building has been a “long time coming” for many of the groups that use the park.
Moncur said the contractor will be required to contain their construction site so it won’t interfere with anything else.
An information sheet about the project said since the building is going on the reclaimed landfill, there will be a methane protection system and a methane monitoring system installed.
Public art will be a part of the building. The public art will include but not be limited to artistically rendered change room signs.
Brenneis said the art hadn’t been selected yet and will have to go through a request for proposals process.
Brenneis, Moncur and other city staff were on hand during an open house held on Tuesday about the new amenities building and the proposed fifth phase of the general park development.
The park development would start in 2017 pending council approval. The proposed developments include a multi-use asphalt trail along Riel Drive, signage, paving and painting of a parking lot and landscaping. This would complete the work planned for Riel Park.
The amenities building design was budgeted at $215,000, and construction is estimated to cost $3.3 million.
The fifth phase of the park design is budgeted at $275,000, and the estimated construction cost of $2.47 million still needs council approval.
