Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre project at Exhibition Park moving ahead following financial commitments

Lethbridge city council greenlit $25 million in funding and a 30-year loan for up to $17.8 million, to help pave the way for the development of an Agr-Food hub and Trade Centre at Exhibition Park in Lethbridge

Lethbridge — City council approved a number of requests from the Lethbridge & District Exhibition Monday evening, which will allow the Exhibition to begin moving forward on a new Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre in the city.

Council greenlit $25-million in funding, as well as a 30-year loan for up to $17.8-million, to Exhibition Park which will pave the way for the development of the EXOLUTION project.

That financial commitment from the city, as part of its economic recovery plan, follows nearly $28-million in funding announced by the provincial government back in June.

Mayor Chris Spearman says the project will be a major economic catalyst for the city.

“I believe that it can be something that we build on. It is not just the construction and the jobs that are related afterwards. We can design our whole marketing strategy for the region, for investment, around agriculture and we’ll have something physically there to tie to it,” Spearman said.

The $25-million will come from various funding sources, but councillors and city staff stressed the project will have no additional impact on taxation for residents.

As part of the $17.8-million loan, which will be available for transfer to the Exhibition on Jan. 1, 2022, the city has agreed to waive the 0.25 percent administration fee.

Additionally, ownership of the Exhibition Park site will remain the property of the City of Lethbridge, but the city will grant a site lease to Lethbridge & District Exhibition for the term of 50 years, with an option to extend for an additional 50-year term.

“We are an agriculture society, so it’s number one,” Ex Park CEO Mike Warkentin said.

“We focus outside of that as well; however the drive of investment to this community through agriculture has been what we’ve done for 123 years. The site that we live on today was developed to bring the world to Lethbridge, and we’re going to do that for another 100 years.”

The City will also provide debt forgiveness for the remaining value of a previous loan of $3.8 million, in exchange for the title to the 155.71 acres of owned land by the Lethbridge & District Exhibition. The balance of the loan will come from the Municipal Revenue Stabilization Reserve.

Exhibition officials are excited to be moving forward on the nearly $73-million EXOLUTION project, which was originally unveiled in 2018 but had been in development since 2006 and laid out the next steps.

“We still have some testing that is underway right now. Our stormwater management, our parking analysis and our traffic impact. We’re also going to start our rezoning process here in the next couple of weeks. That will take us up to Christmas, and ideally, based on the schedule between Christmas and the end of March we’ll be tendering the project,” Warkentin explained.

Warkentin says they hope to break ground on the project in early April 2021.

The Exhibition has consulted with Meyers Norris Penny to develop an extensive financial model to show the ongoing financial sustainability for the organization, and their board of directors will provide annual reports back to council.