Plans for a big expansion of a west Calgary recreation centre are underway, and the group behind it is hoping the city, province, and feds will fund it.

The Westside Recreation Centre (WRC) has delivered a $180 million plan to nearly double the size of the Signal Hill complex, adding approximately 180,000 square feet of aquatic, sport and community space in the area.

Jan Bloemraad, CEO of Westside, said that this project is a significant and ambitious expansion for their organization.

“It’s a game changer not only for Westside but our quadrant of the city and beyond,” he told LWC.

“That’s because we’re at the very end of a CTrain line and very close to the Stoney Trail, so we see users from all across Calgary utilizing Westside.”

Bloemraad said that when they first opened their doors in 2000, they had already built a long-term master plan, and at that time a large aquatics expansion had been contemplated. They expanded in 2010, though it focused primarily on youth facilities.

The plan adds an expanded wave pool, a tot pool, four new waterslides, and an indoor spray park to the aquatics area, hopefully addressing an estimated 1,000-person swim lesson waitlist in the area. The expansion would also add a fieldhouse, with 2/3 of it dedicated to turf fields, and the remaining portion for pickleball, basketball, badminton and other court sports.

Calgary city council’s approval of the GamePlan recreation strategy pushed WRC’s execution of the long-term plan to the forefront.

“We’re now ready to capitalize on the GamePlan initiative through the City of Calgary,” Bloemraad said.

“So, I think, from a timing perspective, this has been a long time coming, but the ambition of the project has just escalated with the needs of the city of Calgary.”

Westside Recreation expansion contingent on partner funding

Bloemraad acknowledged the project would need to follow similar phasing to the initial building development back in 2000, and the first expansion 15 years ago. He said the city would be required to be a lead funder — that would pave the way for the province and feds to hop aboard. They would also do some private sponsorship to help covers costs.

Currently, the project was identified in the City of Calgary’s so-called ‘first wave’ of its making waves project strategy within GamePlan. The expansion is currently unfunded and would need to be considered as a part of Calgary’s upcoming four-year budget discussion.

Bloemraad said he believed what sets this project apart from others is that it’s next to a CTrain station and Stoney Trail provides excellent access for all Calgarians

“The beauty of our project, we think, is that it does tick off all four boxes of GamePlan in one site,” he said.

“It’s an existing facility, so not into a brand-new build. We have a history of operations where we don’t take any subsidy from the city whatsoever in our operating, so we do see this as a perfect alignment with what the city needs.”

Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos agreed. He said this project is precisely the type of development the City of Calgary is looking for in the GamePlan strategy, given its proximity to major corridors and access to other communities.

“We recognize that we have to build recreation facilities in City of Calgary. We have fallen behind,” he said.

“When you add the city of Red Deer to the population of Calgary, but you don’t add the soccer pitches, the swimming lanes, the field houses, there is a breakdown in the quality of life in the city of Calgary. This council, I believe, is going to make that pivot back and reinvest back.”

He said one of the goals of GamePlan is to partner with organizations that have shown solid operations.

“What’s exciting is when we have Westside Rec Center, who have committed millions of dollars to this project pre-work to get all these drawings and these renderings, that’s exciting,” he said.

“You’ve got an organization that for 26 years has not taken $1 of operating funds.”

Bloemraad said with an initial tranche of funding from the City of Calgary this November, they could move into a final design phase through 2027.

An ideal scenario would have them break ground in early 2028, Bloemraad said. It would be a two-phased plan, with the aquatics centre and fieldhouse first, then the arena twinning.

“In an ideal scenario, in my crystal ball, we’re looking at a two-year build for the aquatics and the field house from 2028 to 2030, and then the arena from 2030 to 2031,” he said.