Major venue renovations will not proceed at Revolution Place, despite significant public interest. Grande Prairie city council voted to defeat the idea of a major renovation to Revolution Place during its 2021 budget discussions. Though the larger project will not proceed, Mayor Bill Given says smaller-scale improvements to the facility are still a go.
“It’s obvious that council didn’t have an interest in a full-scale renovation of Revolution Place but there was at least a majority of support for making some minor functional improvements that will improve the customer experience at the front end upon entering the facility and improve the functionality of the facility for shows and events loading in,” he explains.
It was estimated that the cost of large-scale renovations would have cost $55 million. They would have included increasing capacity to 5,000 seats, a full in-the-round second-level concourse area for access to all amenities, and additional concessions and washrooms.
“I think it is a significant project that will take courage and vision from some council, and that will obviously be a council of the future,” says Given. “We’ll see where that goes with [the] next council.”
Another idea brought to the table during budget discussions was to explore the idea of potential new facilities. Council set aside
“There was a desire and willingness to consider the future of events facilities in Grande Prairie with council putting aside a placeholder, essentially, in 2022 for a new event centre plan-in,” says Given. “Certainly it hasn’t been something that’s been on the drawing board this council term or any of the previous iterations of discussions about Revolution Place specifically.”
However, there will still be some minor improvements made to Revolution Place. City council had previously approved $544,000 to improve the speed of service within the lobby and centre gate concessions and address accessibility issues at the box office and reception desk. Work on those improvements was held off until the budget discussions were completed.