Calgary’s BMO Centre expansion on schedule for 2024 opening
Posted Jun 22, 2023 11:45 am.
Last Updated Jun 22, 2023 12:20 pm.
The expansion of Calgary’s BMO Centre is on budget and on schedule to open for Stampede 2024, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and the Calgary Stampede announced Thursday.
The partners add that once completed, the project — located in Calgary’s Culture + Entertainment District — will be western Canada’s largest convention centre, coming in at more than one million square feet.
This includes more than 100,000 square feet of new exhibition space, 38 new meeting rooms, and two new ballrooms, according to the CMLC and the Stampede.
“You can’t miss the BMO Centre expansion when you visit The Culture + Entertainment District — it has progressed so significantly since this time last year when only a portion of the structural steel was installed. We can now clearly see the impact this incredible building will have on Calgary’s skyline and to our city’s reputation as a convention destination,” said Kate Thompson, President and CEO of CMLC in a statement.
“The scale of the building makes this a unique construction site for the project team, and there’s an incredible amount of work happening here every day. We’re grateful to all our partners for their continued dedication and pride in bringing this project to life.”
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The expansion itself, ringing in at 565,000 square feet, is worked on by 600 employees every day, six days a week, the release says.
Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley says the centre’s expansion improves the event’s hosting capacity and the city’s overall competitive position.
Expansion of Calgary’s BMO Centre is on budget and on schedule to open for Stampede 2024, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and the Calgary Stampede announced Thursday, June 22, following a tour of the construction site. (Nick Blakeney, CityNews image)
“At completion, the building, including the existing BMO Centre facilities, has the ability to host an impressive 33,000 guests at one time,” he explained. “The Champions Ballroom alone — at more than four times the size of the existing Palomino ballroom — will accommodate standing room for 5,000 people.
“We’ve seen great interest from the meeting and conventions industry to book in this remarkable new space, and we are hard at work preparing to welcome the world and our community to our new facility just one short year from now.”
The expansion comes with a price tag of $500 million, funding in equal parts by the federal government, the provincial government, and the City of Calgary.
