Curling club on rock solid foundation
The Kelowna Curling Club isn’t going anywhere for at least the next 15 years, and it may remain in its current location forever.
Club manager Jock Tyre says the club’s current lease with the City of Kelowna expires in 2023, but municipal officials have indicated a renewal term of at least 10 years is likely.
City council agreed this week to help bankroll a project to replace the building’s roof and chiller with a repayable loan of $300,000.
“It wouldn’t make sense to put on a new roof with a 20-year lifespan if the building only had five or so years left in it,” Tyre said Wednesday. “We wouldn’t want to be bandaiding things, only to see the building torn down in 10 years or so.”
The city will eventually prepare a new master plan for the downtown Recreation Avenue properties that include the curling club and two ballfields. There is no timetable for that updated plan, and the city has spent considerable sums to upgrade one of the ballfields.
“I don’t question the curling club being part of our community, but is it in the right place?” Jim Gabriel, a city recreation director, told council on Monday.
It’s possible a new curling club might be built as part of new recreation facilities elsewhere in the city, but that discussion is still a long ways off, council heard.
Built in 1978, the 1,200 member club is one of only three such facilities in Canada with 12 ice sheets. However, it may not be the most modern-looking building, with its largely featureless concrete facade, Tyre agrees.
“The exterior is terrible, but I don’t really know what we could do about that,” Tyre said. In recent years,the club has been focused on significant interior improvements such as an elevator, modern seating and new carpeting.
Although the ice comes out in March, it’s reinstalled for nearly two weeks in early July to accommodate summer curlers, many of whom come to Kelowna from the United States.
This fall, the club will host the World Mixed Curling Championship, with curlers from 37 countries expected. “We’re delighted to take our event across the Atlantic for the first time,” World Curling Federation president Kate Caithness said in March.
The club is also busy through the non-curling seasons with private functions, such as an upcoming wedding with 600 guests, concerts, art exhibitions, special events and trade shows, such as a gathering of Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners.
The club has 28,000 square feet of exhibition space, larger than the ice surface at Prospera Place, and is the effectively the largest convention centre in Kelowna.
“We’re constantly working to put on events, with the help of Tourism Kelowna,” Tyre said. “I think our future’s very bright.”