Hotel 540 is a possible site for a new performing arts centre.
Image Credit: National Hospitality Group
October 08, 2014 - 2:40 PM
KAMLOOPS - Arts and culture has taken yet another leap forward thanks to approval of a study that will outline exactly what Kamloops needs in a performing arts centre.
While the study into what a performing arts centre would need to look like in Kamloops was approved alongside the city budget earlier this year the city has now chosen a company to complete that work.
“Phase two would be more focused on what the building would look like,” Parks Director Byron McCorkell says. “We don’t want to get into specific detail of what the building might look like (just yet.)”
MHPM Project Managers Inc. was awarded the $233,000 contract for the feasibility study, which will be done in two phases. Phase one will include extensive consultations as well as a look at the ideal location and phase two will include more details, cost estimates and some initial design work.
The city began public engagement on the possibility of a performing arts centre in 2002 and a few years later officially recognized the need in the cultural strategic plan. The city hopes to see the facility include a 1,500 seat theatre to complement the current theatre space already in Kamloops.
The city has previously said the former Daily News building, which it recently purchased, was a possible future site and is also looking at the Thompson Rivers University campus as an option. Hotel 540 has stepped up with plans for a performing arts centre where the current casino is. The casino will be relocating to the former Rona location in Aberdeen in the fall of 2015.
It is expected an initial approval of the project will be required in early 2015 so that detailed development can be done ahead of a fall referendum, which will likely be needed in order to approve the public debt portion of the project.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2014