MULTI-REASONS FOR A WATERFRONT MULTI-PLEX

 

Location, location, location.  The ideal site for the long-planned Westshore Centre is here today - but may be gone tomorrow.   Now is the time to commit to creating a cohesive world class facility while the last remaining waterfront is still available..

 

Gimli's waterfront area has become an attractive destination for tourists and year-round residents, but the momentum needs to be maintained.  No major increase to the town centre has happened in the past ten years.  For every business that opens, another closes.   Positioning the multiplex near other attractions like the lake, the hotel, the harbour and the Waterfront Centre, and incorporating existing waterfront businesses into the design of the multiplex, will “bring people downtown” and give Gimli new energy.  Plus, the tenants of the facility would provide long term lease and rental income for the RM.

 

Until recently, the (failed) trend has been to locate facilities like The Westshore Centre far out in the suburbs by building a gyprock box in a cow field.  Gimli deserves better.  Gimli deserves an imaginative, forward-thinking design that brings people to the centre of town to tap into the action, whether it’s tourism, business, shopping or the pursuit of fitness.

 

The only major problem blocking this project is the pool part of the multi-plex, due to the large maintenance and staffing costs.   This needs to be located by the Gimli High School and be part of the existing Hockey and Curling "Rec Centre" facility.  A pool is located next to the high school in Selkirk, and is run in a very successful manner, including Gimli students having to travel there, to use the pool.

 

These proposed plans and renderings evolved out of my personal frustration at the lack of a proper performance space in Gimli.   I’ve been recording and mixing sound all over the Interlake since 1998, and I would love to add my thirty years of “acoustical design” experience to the creation of a facility I would be proud to show my colleagues in the industry.  That’s why I have spent over four hundred hours working on these CAD drawings.

 

This design for The Westshore Centre incorporates the requested elements of a wellness centre and a multi-purpose hall.  Instead of being a hastily built box that will be obsolete in a few years, the plan looks to the future and can accommodate the population of Gimli ten years from now.

 

We need to act now, because location is key and timing is everything.  I look forward to any discussions on the “Facebook-Blog” link provided.  I can also be emailed at: ronove-at-yahoo