On time, on budget, and now much in demand: Calgary has entered the international world of trade shows and conventions.

The BMO Centre expansion officially opened to the public on June 5, marking the end of an eight-year journey that began in 2016 with a dream by the Calgary Stampede to transform the northwest corner of Stampede Park.

The $500 million Tier 1 convention centre now boasts more than one million sq. ft. of rentable space for events, over 565,000 sq. ft. which was added from the expansion itself.

“I’ve had the great fortune of watching it rise from the earth out my office window and to reach this point where we can share it with the public is really exciting because we’ve delivered not only a project that’s on time and on budget, but it’s exactly as promised,” said Joel Cowley, CEO of the Calgary Stampede.

“It matches the renderings. Exactly.”

The expansion has drawn considerable attention worldwide from both conventions and the convention industry itself.

The Calgary Stampede has said that, to date, more than 500 events have been booked at the centre post-opening, with the Global Energy Show being the first to be held in the newly-developed exhibition hall space.

In June 2025, the centre will also be the home to the Rotary International Convention, which is expected to draw nearly 20,000 Rotarians and guests to Calgary.

Cowley said that of those 500 events, 150 are ones that had never been to Calgary before, and 50 of those new events are conventions.

“There’s no doubt the BMO Center will benefit the community in drawing trade and consumer shows, and offering up meeting space to local organizers, but of course drawing in those big conventions which generate that economic impact,” he said.

By the numbers those spaces add up. The two new ballrooms represent 70,000 sq. ft. of space that can also support full rigging for light and sound, 38 new meeting rooms that can support three different events at once, and a massive fireplace that is now the largest in Western Canada, located in the central meeting area.

In total, there is now 350,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space between seven halls and 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting space.

A five-star hotel design without the hotel rooms

In addition to the size of the building, which now has the capacity to host some of the world’s largest shows, the Calgary Stampede said they wanted to focus on hospitality in a way that other convention centres worldwide currently do not.

“We went with a mantra of having a five-star hotel without guest rooms, and I think hopefully when people come into this venue, they’ll see the fit and finish and say this is not like any other convention center they’ve been to. It does feel like a hotel,” said Greg Newton, Executive Vice President, Conventions and Events for the Calgary Stampede and General Manager of the BMO Centre.

“We want people to see that we want people to hang out here. We want people to connect here. And that’s why we call it a greater way to gather.”

Newton said it wasn’t just about waiting until next year’s Rotary Convention to really show off what the Stampede can do with the new building—and that means conventions of many different sizes over the coming months.

“The scale of the venue actually allows us to do a lot more, and if we want the regularity, the mean size that we’re going after is about a 1,500 to 2,000 person convention on average. We’re certainly going to have big ones like Rotary at about 17,000 to 20,000 visitors, but we’re going what we want is more regularity and consistency… we’ll have some that flex to 5,000 some that look to 7,000 but our average is right around that 2,000,” he said.

“We have every convention centre from across Canada in town right now meeting in the old BMP Center, in the Palomino, to see this opening.”

More than the conventional convention centre

The benefit to convention goers and to event organizers is that the facility can offer a different level of hospitality than other convention centres, he said.

Part of that is due to training that the Stampede has provided to event staff and a philosophy that strives to be more than utilitarian, Newton said.

“You don’t want to be a venue that people go to only because they’ve outgrown something else. You want to be a venue of choice, and so it is about the aesthetic, and the design, and the service.”

Even before the opening of the new space, the BMO Centre team had been winning awards for that service.

The centre took home the Innovation Award for Client Concierge and Exhibitor Concierge Program during the International Association of Convention Centres annual conference in Luxembourg in June.

Internally, the fit and finish of the rooms was designed to be a cut above—literally.

Cowley described how that design work extended to the wall coverings used with pressed leather used in places to give texture and design over flat colour.

The Stampede has also celebrated its own history and the heritage of Western Canada in the Brand Room, which shows off bronzes from the Stampede and features inlay designs of brands reflective of Alberta’s agricultural industry.

The centre also hosts 85 different art works from local artists, and a towering steel sculpture from internationally recognized artist Gerry Judah in the main plaza.

“The benefit of designing a building during the pandemic was, I think, all of us on the design calls and as part of the design team were able to focus to a different level than what you would traditionally do in a building like this,” said Newton.

“Traditionally when you just do a building like this, you’re trying to operate a building at the same time. You’re trying to do a number of different things at the same time. But doing this during the pandemic allowed all of us to focus on every detail, and the detail in this building is in my career, 30 years in the hospitality industry, is unprecedented.”

Expansion design marks a new chapter for convention centres

Newton characterized the expansion project as one of a new generation of convention centres that will redefine the convention industry.

“Convention centres have gone through multiple multiple generations. They started out as very big and bland buildings and they were meant to be just there for something that was bigger, and it was a size game more than it was a quality game. I think where we’ve really changed the narrative is is in this hotel look and feel the fit, and finish of the furniture is unlike any other convention centre I can think of,” he said.

That fit and feel was of prime importance to the Stampede and to the design team.

Michael Lockwood, Senior Principal at Populous and Design Architect for BMO Centre Expansion, said that the goal of his firm and of Stantec—the second firm at the heart of the prime design team for the project—was to deliver a global icon, but also on time and on budget.

“To do that was very difficult but having great partners, not only on the design team with Populous, Stantec and S2, but also with the client Calgary Stampede, CMLC, and PCL as the builder, everybody had the same drive to deliver a globally recognized facility. But on budget, so we did everything we possibly could to push boundaries in every direction,” Lockwood said.

“It’s our practice at Populous of designing convention centres around the world, we’re always pushing the boundaries of what’s next. We’re always trying to understand the future customer what they need. And at its root, it’s very basic: it’s designing places where people can be together and have great conversations.”

From wide hallways, to three different “neighbourhoods” of meeting spaces and breakout rooms, to the central gathering space called The Exchange, the design for the new centre was to have people gather and meet within the facility itself.

“In a lot of conventions, you might move through corridors, you might bump into people at the hotel bar, we wanted all that to happen right here in The Exchange. And then outside of the space, we’re looking at the plaza,” said Lockwood.

“So, by stacking these functional spaces three storeys high, we were able to create over one acre of public space on parcel so that people could gather outside as well.”

Léo LeJeune, Vice President, Global Leader for Education Sector Stantec and Prime Consultant and Architect of Record, said that it also meant that the facility was not going to be a one-off for the Culture and Entertainment District.

“Although it is quite deliberately an iconic expression—it has to stand out architecturally on the Calgary skyline to attract people from around the world—but it has to be sensitive to work well on the park,” he said.

“That includes honouring how 17th Avenue pictures into stampede Park, the future Event Center creating views to the northeast where that’s going to sit, and meaningful experience for the commercial and retail work that’s yet to come up.”

Making it come in on time and on budget

Getting the BMO Centre to come in on time and on budget, despite a global pandemic and more recently supply chain and labour issues, was a challenge said Kate Thompson, CEO of CMLC.

“$500 million is an enormous amount of money, but it’s also a huge amount of square footage. So what we instructed the design team to look at, CMLC said don’t spend all the money equally and throw the whole at every floor,” she said.

“It’s kind of like when you’re icing a cake, you’re not putting rosettes in every single place, you’re putting the special areas in certain parts. As you move up in the building from the main floor exhibit hall, is really well built but it doesn’t have the finishes that it has in the meeting floor, which is a second floor, and then it elevates again when you get up to the third floor in the ballroom space where there’s increased lighting and different wall features.

“It’s about using the budget appropriately in the right places.”

She said that it was very satisfying for CMLC, and for herself personally, as an architect, to see the completed project match the design given to the public in 2021.

“It was very satisfying to know that what we’re pushing for constantly day in and day out is worth it. We intentionally didn’t release those renderings until we knew we could deliver it. And then every step along the way, we were checking back, is this what we promised? Can we deliver and how do we get there?” Thompson said.

“There are choices that have to be made along the way that every project has to have, but we were able to stay true to what we promised and deliver it.”

The next journey for the BMO Centre

What comes next for the BMO Centre is some of the work that’s already underway by CMLC for the Culture and Entertainment District, and for future plans to complement and expand the economic offerings in the area.

Cowley said that the Stampede has been having active discussions with multiple hotel brands—17 in fact—to fulfill the potential for the centre.

“There’s interest in that, and that’s the one thing that we truly need for this building to fulfill its potential is nearby hotel support. We hope to by the end of the summer be able to announce that we have our first hotel locked in,” he said.

“But not just those on Stampede Park. I think with the Event Center coming in, the development of the Culture and Entertainment District, there will be hotels built nearby that are not actually on Stampede.”

Deborah Yedlin, CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, said that the Chamber was thrilled with the completion of the expansion and agreed with Cowley that hotels were key to unlocking the centre’s potential in years to come.

“While the opening of the BMO is a significant milestone, to realize the full potential of this investment, we need more hotel rooms in our city center. BMO can host up to 33,000 guests at one time—and we don’t have enough hotel rooms to accommodate these visitors. We need to create between 2,500 to 3,000 more rooms to address this scarcity,” Yedlin said.

“If this shortage is not addressed, we will not realize the full potential of what the BMO Centre expansion represents as it could result in more than 100,000 lost night stays by 2031. This includes lost expenditures on hotel rooms, meals, entertainment and transportation—all of which are critical for hotels, restaurants, bars and the broader business community.”

But, she said, the economic impact of the BMO Centre had huge potential for Calgary’s economy.

“This flagship project, which is the largest facility of its kind in Western Canada, is key to positioning Calgary as a premier destination for conferences and events. Already, the centre has helped attract dozens of conferences, many of which would not have been possible without the expansion. And as a hub for visitors, it will help contribute to our global reputation as a leader in hospitality.”

The opening of the BMO Centre also saw a dual announcement on Wednesday. BMO’s name is set to remain on the centre for at least an additional 10 years. According to Mike Bonner, Head of Distribution, Canadian Personal and Business Banking for BMO, would be likely to continue to adorn the building in decades to come.

“This is a representation of our shareholders. This is the reputation of our customers and those thousands of people that work for us. So they identify with a building, and it’s just a physical building, but when you look at something like this… it really does represent the spirit of Calgary,” he said.

“We’re thinking about when you walk around and you see the history, and the legacy of the Stampede—Calgary facilities like this or the roundup centre—these are moments in history that you don’t want to ever forget.”

Photos from the BMO Centre Expansion