This is part one of a series exploring a Civic Core Plan created by a group of concerned citizens of Prince George who understand the importance of incorporating the vision of user groups to create a multi-use facility in the heart of the city that will not only improve quality of life but also establish a strong path to economic growth.
Economic development should be the focus when making decisions about the Prince George Civic Core Plan, say the members of a citizens’ group that worked on a plan for the future of the site.
The end result should meet the needs of the arts and sports communities while also including a convention centre complex and entertainment hub in the heart of the city, they say.
The plan would look to expand and update the existing Civic Plaza while attracting development in the surrounding area, expand downtown greenspace and provide for a downtown transit exchange.
The plan would address challenges with aging facilities infrastructure, including Kopar Memorial Arena, the Prince George Playhouse and Studio 2880, while creating a vibrant downtown.
In response to Prince George council taking steps to put a plan together in 2022 the citizens’ group, made up of Prince George residents with skill sets suited to the project, came together.
It included Noreen Rustad, a longtime philanthropist and community advocate; Les Waldie, a former vice president of human resources at a lumber mill, active in volunteerism and who once chaired a committee to build the cancer lodge; Margaret Jones-Bricker, who helped raise $4.5 million to the build the cancer lodge; Steve Henderson of Spectra Energy, now retired, well-connected to municipalities around the province and chair of Prince George Hospice Society; Eli Klasner, local arts leader and current executive director of the Community Arts Council of Prince George and District, and Cameron Stolz, longtime Prince George business owner, former councillor and owner of The Citizen.
The citizen group held a series of extensive meetings with community groups that would be impacted by the creation of a hub in the downtown core, identifying economic benefits, partnerships and collaboration, organizations’ needs, activated community space, parking, transportation and operations and initiatives.
The plan would see existing structures at Canada Games Plaza, like the Two Rivers Gallery, the Prince George Public Library and the Civic Centre, be enhanced by a newly built arena to replace Kopar Memorial Centre. There would also be a new performance centre that would accommodate several organizations with flexible spaces, while offering a hub for user groups and an expanded space for conventions and trade shows. This could attract thousands of people into Prince George’s downtown core during special events, the group determined.
Klasner said the group came together when it was announced that there would be major changes to the area, including the demolition of the Four Seasons Pool and the old fire hall and the possibility of replacing the Kopar Memorial Arena, Studio 2880 and the Prince George Playhouse.
He said the group’s members all shared history and interest in the arts, sports and economic development.
“We started meeting and realized it would be interesting to sit down with a lot of the key user groups and other key stakeholder groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Lheidli T’enneh and Tourism Prince George,” he said. “What if we just met and did interviews and gathered our own background information?”
It was a fascinating process that took about six months, he added.
“It was a real grassroots initiative of people who just really wanted to see the city do the right thing by this downtown civic core plan,” Klasner said. “To get something that will attract people to the community with something that will serve the people that are using those existing facilities and get something going on the ground that will help with economic downtown revitalization.”
What the group wanted was to look to create a wonderful, innovative mélange of multi-use spaces that could check off as many boxes as possible, he added.
”So, for example, a new ice rink that would replace Kopar and be the new home of the Spruce Kings and how that could serve as a trades-show space because we don’t have enough of that in this city,” Klasner said.
“And how could a new concert hall or performing arts venue within that build also serve the conferences that come to Prince George, so we’re looking at a really versatile approach to understanding what those new spaces could be – how could that space be the new home for the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and also be a room for a big plenary session for a major conference that could be held here. We really wanted to see a cross-disciplinary approach.
“So rather than individual groups or interested stakeholders taking a siloed approach, we could sit across from each other and say ‘hey, this space that would work for me as an arts organization could also work for you, a sports organization and other sports groups as well.”
He said the process led to a new alliance between the arts and ice-rink sports.
“The Community Arts Council has been working diligently with the Spruce Kings management on making sure we advocate together because we don’t want to see one sector left behind in favour of another,” he said. “We want to see this as a one and done thing and we don’t want to see the loudest voice get what they want and the rest left behind. And that’s something we haven’t really seen in the city before. We will not accept having a wedge put between us.”
The citizens’ group has also talked about the practical side of its Civic Core sports and entertainment complex, Klasner added.
“It needs to have flexible and versatile spaces that work well with each other and what we also want to see is pedestrian spaces. To really make this a hopping space that is a going concern seven days a week all year round.”
The space can’t have too many dark nights and also needs to have lots of revenue opportunities and revenue-sharing opportunities.
“And another nice piece to this having come up from the grassroots is the understanding and the willingness that these key user groups want to be part of this and that includes helping to raise funds to build it, helping to access other capital that could be available to this kind of multipurpose project through what our groups have access to,” Klasner said.
The Community Arts Council as an arts group can get access to certain infrastructure grants that perhaps municipal government cannot.
“Now it’s really about an innovative funding construct – this is not something that’s going to be 100 per cent built from local tax dollars,” Klasner assured.
“It has to have that varied-level funding construct. When we talk about economic development this has to be a project that makes good economic sense for the community and for building the future of the community as well.”
Tourism PG chief executive officer, Colin Carson, said he can speak about a new Civic Core Plan in general terms because it is only in the concept stage right now.
“I think that when we see events coming into Prince George they bring huge opportunities with them based on the economic value they bring to tourism-related businesses and they just bring dollars into our community,” Carson said. “So any sort of facility like this will allow us to attract more concerts, more shows, more conferences, more sporting events.”
Carson said we can look at sporting events in general and a specific example is the Cougars' playoff run.
“That saw millions of dollars injected into the local economy from out-of-town visitors coming for those games specifically,” Carson said. “Any sort of new facility is really good for attracting more events.”
“When we look at the Conference and Civic Centre, it’s a fantastic facility, which is a huge economic driver for the city but there’s a certain limit with that. It’s a large building, a large conference centre but when you look at the BC Natural Resource Forum – they can’t get any bigger. There’s a demand for them to get bigger so if there is an opportunity to have an off-site trades show at the conference centre still within walking distance that will allow opportunities to host bigger conferences that will increase that economic impact on Prince George. There is definitely some big opportunities there.”
The city-owned location is a huge opportunity. There is about 1,300 hotel rooms in the downtown core of Prince George and about 850 of them are within walking distance to the Conference and Civic Centre.
“So all of those people from out of town, whether they are here for specific events or if they’re here for work or medical appointments that’s a pretty huge opportunity to have this captive audience right nearby when you’re looking for people to sell tickets to for a show at a performing arts centre or tickets to a hockey game in a new arena or anything like that so I think that location is really key and I think there’s a huge amount of opportunity just in that alone as well,” Carson said.
Tomorrow, in Part 2: Prince George, like other B.C. communities, must revitalize its downtown core
