The age of Innovation is over.
Along with extensive renovations, Coquitlam’s Innovation Centre is set to be renamed: Town Centre Park Community Centre.
“I’m so thankful that we have changed the name,” said Coun. Robert Mazzarolo. “No offense to those who named it Innovation Centre, but no one knew where it was.”
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Tentatively set to open April 2024, the revamped centre is set to cost about $5 million. Taxpayers will likely be on the hook for another 0.5 percent to fund annual operating costs projected at $850,000.
The centre should take some of the pressure off waitlists at Pinetree Community Centre and Glen Pine Pavilion for a: “fraction of the cost it would be to build a new community centre,” according to city staff.
With a capacity for around 250 people, the Town Centre Park Community Centre is set to be outfitted with an art studio, five multi-purpose rooms, and large open areas.
While best known for ice cream and chimney cakes, Vancouver business Praguery is slated to sell sweet and savoury foods at a small concession that includes a liquor licensed area.
Built in 1996, the old Innovation Centre “never really did innovate,” noted Coun. Dennis Marsden.
While recently operating as an interim fitness centre, the Innovation Centre functioned largely as meeting space for city staff.
Marsden thanked city staff for their perseverance as well as putting up with years of “snide comments” about the underutilized facility.
“While this wasn’t what I envisioned at the time, in looking at say, an area where you can create an economic hub, this certainly fills a need,” Marsden said.
The city is set to put out a call for artists to design a mural of the building’s south and west exterior walls.
A corridor is set to connect the new centre with the Evergreen Cultural Centre.
