Energizing Calgary’s Culture + Entertainment District
The Culture + Entertainment District will be Calgary’s next great city neighbourhood, the next chapter in downtown life, and an engine of development and tourism in a dynamic, evolving city.
This district is fueled by many different kinds of energy—there are Calgarians, visitors, fans, artists and arts lovers, and nature is always, surprisingly, close by. The $500 million expanded BMO Centre adds the buzz of conference goers to the mix.
Today, as we celebrate the substantial completion of the expanded BMO Centre, and are just under 90 days away from the opening of western Canada’s largest convention centre, we caught up with Jim Laurendeau, the Calgary Stampede’s Vice-President of Park Development & Operations who explains the significance of this milestone, reflects on the project's historical roots and discusses how this building breathes new life into our collective vision for tomorrow’s Calgary and the future of Calgary Stampede and The Culture + Entertainment District.
The Substantial behind the BMO Centre expansion Substantial Completion Milestone
By Jim Laurendeau, Vice-President of Park Development & Operations, Calgary Stampede
Q. Can you tell us what substantial completion means for the BMO Centre expansion project and the significance behind it?
With a big construction project like this, it is something that is years in the making. The process started with analyzing the business needs of both the BMO Centre and of Calgary. Understanding there was opportunity in the convention industry in Calgary, we asked ourselves, “Should we expand the BMO Centre?” and “What does that look like?” before securing funding for the project and then partnering with Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) as our development manager and partner in the delivery of the Rivers District Master Plan. Together, we then involved all the project and construction managers, architects, designers, engineers and the full project team. At those early stages, it felt like the building would never be finished, so to be here celebrating the substantial completion of the project, on time and on budget, feels unbelievable.
Substantial completion means that the building can largely fulfill its intended purpose – hosting meetings – which the BMO Centre expansion is now capable of. The Stampede has received the ‘keys’ to the building from CMLC and our Stampede teams will now begin to move-in and operationalize the building in time for the BMO Centre expansion’s opening in June.
Q. What impact will the BMO Centre expansion have on the Stampede, on The C+E District and on Calgary?
For 112 years, the Calgary Stampede and Stampede Park have been a place to bring people together. On a year-round basis, we’ve largely seen Calgarians gathering here for consumer shows, like the Home & Garden Show and the International Auto & Truck Show. Over the years we often engaged in the convention business on a comparatively small scale, but with this expansion, we are now jumping in with both feet through this Tier 1 facility.
With this project, we will be bringing people from other cities, provinces and countries to Stampede Park and Calgary to learn from each other, share information and connect. We are also bringing events that will happen throughout the day and throughout the work week, where the events we’ve been hosting pre-expansion have largely been hosted in the evening or on weekends. With the new events we are able to draw, we are bringing vibrancy to The Culture + Entertainment District and animating Stampede Park, every day of the week.
“The economic impact to Calgary will equate to approximately upwards of $100 million a year and provide thousands of jobs. ”
For Calgary, the BMO Centre expansion also has a tremendous impact. We are just getting started, but in 2025 alone, there will be approximately a quarter million hotel room nights generated by this building. Hotel rooms that would otherwise have been vacant will now be occupied, and that also translates to filling restaurants, shops, rideshares and other attractions that make Calgary unique. The economic impact to Calgary will equate to approximately upwards of $100 million a year and provide thousands of jobs.
For Calgarians, this also means that we can bring new scale of events that Calgary was previously challenged to host. Further to this, it means we are creating an incredible place to gather, whether there’s an event happening or not, with a beautiful outdoor plaza, featuring the Pavilion Lights and the Spirit of Water public art piece, that we know Calgarians will want to share with their friends and family.
Q. What has been the evolution of the BMO Centre over the years, and what led to the need for the expansion?
In 1981, the Calgary Stampede opened the Round Up Centre (the BMO Centre), which was initially envisioned as an agriculture exhibition building featuring three halls and a livestock auction facility. Soon after it opened, demand for different sorts of events emerged. Though agricultural experiences remain at the heart of the Calgary Stampede, the organization adjusted to accommodate consumer shows and larger events. In the early 2000s, we added one more hall and the Palomino ballroom and finished breakout rooms to the BMO Centre. A few years later, we added yet another hall to try and keep up with the demand for event space in Calgary. Fast forward to 2019, we built Hall F, a sixth hall, to prepare for the BMO Centre expansion project.
Timelapse video of the construction of Hall F
Q. How has Stampede Park evolved as a whole over the past 10 years and what has been the vision behind it?
In addition to the BMO Centre expansion, we’ve had a significant amount of development on Stampede Park over the past 10 years. In 2014, we opened the Nutrien Western Event Centre, to scale up the size of Agriculture & Western Events we were able to host. In 2017, The Big Four Building was updated into its most current iteration, The Big Four Roadhouse, designed as an additional event hosting space with the capacity to easily host live music events at Stampede Park. In 2019, we also opened Bar Nineteen Twelve in The Big Four, offering an upscale dining and event space. The GMC stadium has undergone many renovations in that time as well to maintain its standing as the best place to watch our rodeo, Evening Show and other outdoor events throughout the year.
We’ve also done significant work in Youth Campus to expand upon our community and youth programming, including opening the TransAlta Performing Arts Studios and the BMO Amphitheater in 2017, Doherty Hall in 2018, and the conversion of the old Weston Bakery into the new Calgary Arts Academy to name a few. Of course, this spring, we are also thrilled to open Sam Centre, which will share Calgary’s Stampede story with guests, year-round.
Conceptual rendering of Sam Centre
All these projects have been done with the vision of building a world-class, year-round gathering place for the community.
Q. What’s next for the BMO Centre, following substantial completion, on the road to the grand opening?
Remember when you moved out of your parents’ house and you needed everything? You needed knives and spoons and a toaster and chairs and a coffee table, and you had none of it! Imagine that but moving into 565,000 sq. ft. of brand-new space designed to host meetings and gatherings of all sizes. The team will be loading in furniture, dishes, cutlery and catering equipment to the tune of more than 6,500 stacking chairs, 600 round banquet tables, 500 rectangular tables, 7,700 table forks and knives, and 6,200 dinner plates. We’ll be building furniture, hanging art, setting up rooms, and so much more, to get the building ready to host our first events.
Q. Looking back on the project, from groundbreaking to substantial completion, what has been your biggest highlight?
I have two, and they’re both about the people! The first is the inspiring and incredible work of our employees and volunteers across the organization to bring this project to life. Led by the Park Development and year-round Events teams, the list of people from every corner of this organization is far too extensive to list.
Calgary Stampede VP of Park Development & Operations, Jim Laurendeau on site at the BMO Centre expansion in June 2022
Secondly, I have to thank our project partners. When we and CMLC were pulling the team together for the BMO Centre expansion project, we were certainly focused on everyone’s skills and experience, but we also wanted to hire good people that would gel as a team. By every measure, we were successful in achieving that. All our construction and project partners including the design team, project managers, and the construction team are genuinely good people who take an immense (and well-deserved!) pride in this project which will benefit the Stampede and Calgary. They want what’s best for the project and have formed a strong, trusting team. That has made all the difference.
Q. Finally, what would you say will set the expanded BMO Centre apart from all other convention centres?
What sets the BMO Centre expansion apart is all the spaces in between. The meetings industry is coming from a previous mindset that people go to conventions for the information. While that is true, the most important thing happening at conventions are the connections forming between the attendees – at the coffee stations, impromptu hallway conversations and a beverage or two at the end of the day. The BMO Centre expansion embraces the idea of facilitating connections and has integrated spaces like The Exchange (featuring Canada’s largest indoor fireplace), wide hallways, and an incredible art collection sure to spark conversations, to name a few.
Fifteen years ago, if you would have said “Hey, we’re going to create a massive, unrentable space in our convention centre,” folks would have thought we were crazy. But now, the spaces in between and all the added features, artwork, Stampede history and our distinct brand of Western hospitality is what will set the BMO Centre apart as the first of the next generation of convention centres.
About Jim Laurendeau
Jim joined the Stampede in 1999 and held increasingly senior roles in various departments before being appointed Vice-President in 2015.
In his current role, Jim is responsible for development on Stampede Park, including the build-out of the Youth Campus, the extension of 17th Avenue through Stampede Park, the design and construction of the BMO Centre expansion, the introduction of a hotel and numerous other initiatives. In collaboration with Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and The City of Calgary, Jim and his team are working to develop the area as part of Calgary’s Culture & Entertainment district. As well, Jim oversees the organization’s operations related to public safety, maintenance, parking, and environmental stewardship.
Previously, Jim led the programming of the 2012 Centennial Stampede, mobilized the organization’s 2013 operational response following the worst flood in Canadian history, and led the Stampede’s safety response during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also is the Past President of the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions and a Roll of Honour inductee in that organization.