Brandon’s Keystone Centre is ready to begin construction on a 130,000-square-foot addition as soon as it lines up enough funds.
“Manitoba Ag Days basically takes every square inch of the building that we have now and it also has a waiting list of exhibitors. We would like to be able to accommodate that,” said Keystone Centre’s general manager, Neil Thomson.
The Keystone board began exploring additional possibilities in 2011, following a request from the leadership group, which includes the City of Brandon, the Province of Manitoba, and the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba.
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“The leadership group asked us to go out and talk to the community and stakeholders and see what they would like, and this has been the result, a multi-purpose field house/barn,” said Thomson.
Similar to its existing building, the proposed 130,000-square-foot facility would have the capacity to host indoor recreation events, agriculture trade shows as well as a livestock barn.
Construction of the facility is estimated to cost $22.5 million and would be located on the northeast corner of the property, in close proximity to the existing Westoba Agriculture Centre of Excellence barns.
“We have proposed to do this, but obviously we are in need of some funding partners, mainly the City of Brandon, the Province of Manitoba and likely funding from a federal level. Ideally, we are looking for $7.5 million from each one of those partners,” said Thomson.
The Keystone board has also recognized the need for community fundraising.
“We think that this would be a great thing for Brandon and surrounding communities because of the economic activity it would generate,” said Thomson. “With this facility we would be able to increase the events we host and attract. We would be able to retain the National Arabian show and increase Ag Days’ offerings.”
The facility would host a large turf with the intent that it could be removed to accommodate 340 animal stalls and an indoor 100×200-foot arena.
“We have used the Populus group as the facilitator for this project. This is a group that operates worldwide in a variety of areas, including fairgrounds and exhibitions,” said Thomson. “It is a large group from Oklahoma and it designed and built the London Olympics equestrian facility.”
The project has received letters of support from Manitoba Ag Days, Brandon Chamber of Commerce, Brandon Youth Soccer, Seniors for Seniors and the Canadian National Arabian group.
“I think that this would be a significant improvement to the recreation capability to the City of Brandon and southwestern Manitoba, and I believe that this project is a question of when, not if,” said Thomson.
