Expansion of Calgary’s BMO Centre opens Wednesday

The massive expansion of Calgary’s BMO Centre opened Wednesday after years of construction.

The dark brown, futuristic looking building is expected to revolutionize Calgary’s Rivers District, as it is now western Canada’s largest convention space at more than one million square feet — double the size of the old building.

Over the next year, there are tons of events planned for Calgary’s state of the art building. Next week, the Global Energy Show will be underway, followed by Stampede events in July, and the Association of Zoos Aquariums in September. Next year, more than 20,000 people will be in Calgary for the Rotary International Convention, and the BMO Centre is expected to be up for the challenge, as it has the ability to host 33,000 people at once.

The expansion was first proposed back in 2018 when Naheed Nenshi was mayor.

The project came at a cost of $500 million, with funding coming from the city, the province, and the federal government.

When the keys were handed over to the Calgary Stampede back in March, officials said the project took over two million construction hours put in by over 5,000 people. The construction of more than 565,000 square feet of new space took 10,000 metric tonnes of steel, and 2.4 million square feet of drywall.

Changes to the BMO Centre are leading the charge for development in the area, with the replacement of the Scotiabank Saddledome and expansion of the Arts Commons expected to begin in the next few years.

Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Deborah Yedlin is applauding the successful completion of the project saying it sets Calgary up to be “a world-class city with best-in-class infrastructure.”

“This investment makes Calgary an even better place to live and supports local businesses such as retail and restaurants who will benefit from the spinoff effects of these projects,” she said.

More downtown hotel rooms needed to accommodate new space

However, amidst the excitement of the expansion’s completion, Yedlin says the full potential of the investment can’t be reached without the creation of more hotel rooms in the city centre.

The new BMO Centre can host up to 33,000 guests at a time and the Chamber claims there aren’t enough places downtown to accommodate them.

“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,” Yedlin says.

She is calling for continued collaboration and co-ordination between the private and public sector to create hotel capacity.

The Calgary Hotel Association is hoping to see a deal soon for a hotel next to the BMO Centre. The association’s executive director Sol Zia agrees the current status quo won’t cut it.

“We can accommodate conventions of over 20,000 people, but we have only 15,500 hotel and motel rooms in the city,” he says.

Zia says based on plans he has seen, there are three sites right now that would be attached in some way to the new centre. They are hoping to see shovels in the ground on the first hotel by next spring at the latest.

In 2022, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and the Calgary Stampede announced Matthews Southwest Hospitality would be the developer for a BMO Centre convention hotel, which would be connected directly to the centre.

Though no updates have been given on the hotel project recently, CMLC previously said it would be 31,000 square feet with 220 rooms, and located at the north entrance to Stampede Park.