WESTLOCK — Close to two years after the demolition of Westlock’s Jubilee Arena, the finishing touches are almost complete.
The location of the town’s first indoor arena, which was demolished in early 2023, will soon be a new parking lot
“After we knocked down the building, it’s common practice to let the area underneath the building to rest,” said Town of Westlock director of operations, Robin Benoit. “There’s a little bit of ground rebound that occurs after a building has been removed like that … it’s best practice to let the land rest for a year before you start to do any development afterwards.”
The demolition was originally scheduled to be completed in the early fall of 2022, with dates in September and October, work on the demolition was delayed several times before the entire building was finally down in January 2023.
“We finished knocking the building down in early 2023. We decided to let it rest for that one-year period, which puts us into 2024 for construction of the parking lot,” said Benoit, noting crews were back on site in August finishing up the work, which is expected to be complete by early mid-October, weather depending.
“It’ll be completely finished (and paved) by Thanksgiving,” he said, adding while some products like light standards are still facing challenges with the supply system, and may arrive later, there will be a paved parking lot ready to use by the middle of next month.
The parking lot will have standard lighting and stormwater run-off collection features, among others.
“Also, we’re putting in some electrical pedestals for things like events that can occur in the parking lot,” he said, noting they will provide power for events such as an outdoor concert, festival or outdoor market or for food vendors and food trucks, for example. “The parking lot will have a multi-purpose platform.”
The parking lot is being built adjacent to the Westlock Curling Club and is going to be 71 meters by 37 meters in size and will add 96 new parking stalls, including several barrier-free stalls.
Benoit noted the many events and activities that take place year-round at the Rotary Spirit Centre, including those on holidays like Family Day, sporting events such as lacrosse, hockey and baseball, and the annual Westlock Ag Fair and how the additional parking spots will help ease some parking congestion.
“This is going to fill a gap in the facility,” said Benoit.
The demolition and reclamation project, including the newly created parking spaces, was initially budgeted to cost $1 million but has now come cheaper, as stated in the 2023 budget.
“In 2023 we had a budget of $600,000 and a portion of that covered the demolition but also some of it is for the parking lot,” said Benoit. “We were able to take the Jubilee building down for a lot cheaper than we had anticipated,” said Benoit. “The money we saved on the demolition project, has allowed us to do the parking lot development.”
