Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park on Monday launched a $5.6 million plan to build dedicated space for livestock events and related trade shows.
The planned 20,000-square foot building expansion will allow the park’s multi-building Trade Centre to be used exclusively as conference and trade show space, ending the costly down-time needed to set up multi-use buildings for livestock events, as well as to clean them up for non-livestock events afterward.
By freeing up space with this expansion, the park organization expects it can book larger events and hold more events at the same time.
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The expansion will handle new and expanded agriculture and equine events and allow the organization to maintain its existing agriculture programs, said Dennis Wiebe, president of Saskatoon Prairieland Park Corp., in a news release announcing $2.8 million in total contributions from the federal, provincial and Saskatoon city governments.
The park in December 2006 opened Hall E, a 58,000-square foot facility connected directly to Hall D, allowing the site to host over 110,000 square feet of event space combined. The two buildings connect with Halls A, B and C and the “Terrace” area through a common foyer, for a total of about 200,000 square feet not counting Monday’s announcement.
“This development means more shows, more visitors and more spin-off revenue generated,” said Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison in the province’s release.
Saskatoon Prairieland Park is a membership-based non-profit group that grew out of a community agricultural society starting in 1886 with Saskatoon’s first fair. According to Prairieland’s web site, the park now hosts 321 events per year, up from just 12 major annual events during the 1980s.
Neighbouring facilities at Prairieland Park include the Western Development Museum and racetrack Marquis Downs. The Saskatoon Star Phoenix reported Monday that the new livestock area will include barn space for Marquis Downs’ racehorses.
The paper reported last week that another of the park’s facilities — Emerald Casino, which shut down last summer — will now be partly converted into a sports bar including simulcast off-track betting.
