City of Grande Prairie council has approved $544,000 in capital funding to help revitalize the lobby space at Revolution Place. The upgrades are meant to improve the speed of service within the lobby and centre gate concessions and address the accessibility issues at the box office and reception desk.
The approval comes on the heels of the VP of Swan City Hockey, which owns the Grande Prairie Storm, suggesting that several major upgrades to the arena could make it on the shovel ready list for economic stimulus builds.
Mayor Bill Given says the decision from council is a good way to allow some of that work to begin, and boost the local economy.
“I think the major thing here was administration saw an opportunity to do some improvements that wouldn’t have throwaway costs should council choose to do larger improvements,” he says.
“Secondly, it was important to move these forward quickly because we saw these as opportunities to put work into the local economy in smaller packages that could be bid on, or awarded to local industry.”
Given says the scope of work also had little to do with the facility currently being closed and reiterates it’s ultimately down to getting money back into both local businesses and contractors.
In early May, Chris Millsap said the biggest need the Swan City Hockey Association sees for the building comes in the form of expanded seating and box seat installation. Millsap added the installation of seats on the east side of the building would not only support larger attendance at Storm games, but it would provide further opportunities to increase advertising revenue and other sources of income during the season.
No details as to when work to the concourse area will begin have been released.