City committee recommends $6.5M funding for Winspear Centre project to make up for parking revenue loss

Edmonton city council will soon consider a $6.5 million grant for the Winspear Centre to make up for lost parking revenue.

Edmonton city council’s executive committee passed a motion Wednesday afternoon to give a downtown performing arts hall additional funding to make up for a loss in parking revenue.

City councillors will decide next week if they approve the $6.5 million for the Francis Winspear Centre for Music to support its ongoing expansion project.

The one-time funding is meant to compensate the Winspear for a reduction in the number of parking stalls for the project, which began in 2019.

The original business case for the expansion promised 142 parking stalls, but only 67 were built to accommodate a district energy plant that the city required to be built on the project site, which is located east of the existing building. Before the expansion, the Winspear ran a 97-stall parking lot on the site that generated an important $575,000 in annual revenue and a major funding source.

The COVID-19 pandemic hindered the Winspear expansion project both in terms of delayed construction work and increased costs.

What was once a $65-million undertaking grew to $115 million in 2024, leaving a $28-million shortfall at the time.

The expansion to the Winspear, which opened in 1997 and is the home of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, will add a 550-seat theatre, classrooms, multi-purpose indoor and outdoor spaces, and upgrades to the existing concert hall as well as parking.

The federal contributed $18.1 million to the project and the province $13 million in 2019. Alberta committed an additional $12.8 million in March 2024.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson