Ontario Construction News staff writer
The City of Kitchener has started construction on a new multi-purpose indoor recreation facility at RBJ Schlegel Park, a $144 million project that will be the city’s first net-zero carbon building.
An Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) including Multiplex Canada as general contractor, Unity Design Studio Inc., MTE Consultants, AECOM, DEI Consulting Engineers, SpruceLab Inc., Pratus Group, Austin Carroll, Sutherland-Schultz Ltd., and M&G Steel Limited, Guild Electric Limited.
“The vision for this new multi-purpose recreation facility for our community has become a reality with today’s official groundbreaking and much-anticipated launch of the construction phase,” Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said at a groundbreaking ceremony May 31. “As our community continues to grow, this new recreation complex will help to ensure we can meet the diverse recreational needs of our residents for decades to come and promises to be a wonderful addition to RBJ Schlegel Park.”
The new recreation facility will include the following amenities:
- FIFA-sized indoor turf fieldhouse that can be divided into four individual fields to allow more residents to use the turf at the same time for sports such as soccer, cricket, and lacrosse.
- aquatics centre that includes a community leisure pool and a separate lane pool with several viewing galleries.
- second-floor walking track around the perimeter of the turf field will allow residents to stay active indoors all year around.
- indoor cricket batting cage to support year-round growth and development in this rapidly growing sport within our community.
- multi-purpose space with top-notch athlete amenities, including a large dividable room for community events, family parties or other rentals.
The facility has been designed as one of the most sustainable recreation facilities in Canada and will operate at a very high level of energy efficiency through a geothermal heating and cooling system. It will also house the city’s largest array of solar panels that will reduce 22 tonnes of carbon annually and save the City close to $100,000 in utility costs every year.
The Government of Canada contributed $9.7 million and the Government of Ontario is investing over $8 million). The remaining $126.2 million, will be funded through Development Charge revenues collected by the City of Kitchener.
