Westerner Park announced Tuesday night that it has $180 million worth of development planned in the next 10 years, all included in its updated Land Use Master Plan.

The first project, already underway and expected to be completed next year, is Exhibition Hall, a 70,000 sq ft building that will primarily be used for trade shows but also for turf sports.

“We have some conversations with folks from international organizations that are looking at bringing larger trade shows to Westerner Park. We need a couple hundred thousand square feet of trade show space. So without the Exhibition Hall, we can’t even have a conversation with those folks,” says CEO Ben Antifaiff.

Exhibition Hall comes with a $15 million price tag, which Westerner Park will finance through debt, Antifaiff says.

Other projects include a $26-million convention centre, $17-million galleria, $8 million for Centrium renovations, and $15 million for site services and parking lot improvements.

A $46 million hotel and $25-million twin-pad arena complex are proposed for later on in the planning period.

“The next steps, we’re considering starting a Westerner Park foundation for fundraising and generating a good chunk of those funds in order to undertake each of those projects,” Antifaiff says.

Exhibition Hall would link the park’s Stockmens Pavilion with the Agricentre.

Future of racetrack in question

The two options for site plans. Option 2, shown on the bottom of the page, clearly establishes which areas of the park are publicly-accessible.

There are two options for site plans, one which creates public access for traffic in the south and includes phasing out the racetrack.

Antifaiff says that establishes which areas are accessible to the public, and which areas are not.

“One of the key things that is important for us is that delineation between the back-of-house and front-of-house space,” he says.

“So the north-south development in Option 2 provides us to actually create that front-of-house, back-of-house space and solidifies where that public access is.”

Under Option 2, the racetrack would be repurposed for additional parking.

“It’s rentable space based on the types of events we attract. So having a revenue-generating parking lot  … is good business for us at Westerner Park,” Antifaiff says.