Wenatchee events center being built

Multi-purpose facility to open in September

WENATCHEE - A new center to increase traffic to Wenatchee during its slowest months is under construction.

An open house for the Greater Wenatchee Regional Events Center, located at 1300 Walla Walla Ave., was held Thursday at the center's temporary office at 9 S. Wenatchee Ave., in Wenatchee.

Linda Haglund, director of sales and marketing, called the center a multi-purpose facility that will service the region of North Central Washington.

"There will be two sheets of ice that will be under the same roof, but also it's multi-purpose, so it can accommodate concerts, rodeo, graduations, trade shows - you name it, we can just about do it," she said.

The center is currently replacing an existing facility with ice rinks.

"We have a strong user group here in adult and youth hockey, and then we have a strong figure skater group, we have a curling club," Haglund explained. "We have current ice users, but we took it a step further in having the building be multi-purpose."

The center is currently under construction and expected to open in September. A signing celebration was held Thursday for people to sign a beam to be placed within the structure.

From an economic standpoint, the center will help support the region in the winter, which Haglund said is the hardest time of the year.

"We don't have a lot of things to do here in the winter time," she said. "So for our hotels, motels, restaurants, retail, we're going to give people a reason to come to Wenatchee in the wintertime to be entertained, whether that's watching a hockey game, a concert or a rodeo. We're going to give someone something to do, which will help us economically support."

Such venues typically require travel to Seattle, Spokane or the Tri-Cities.

"It will keep these dollars closer to home for many of these communities," Haglund said. "It gives us an opportunity then to host graduations, things in Wenatchee. We have a performing arts center that seats approximately 440 people, we have a high school auditorium built about 35 years ago that seats a little over 1,000. We don't have those opportunities that will allow us to host tournaments, things like that. It's exciting."

Haglund said the center will employ 15 to 20 full-time employees and up to 200 event staff.

"It's an exciting time of growth for this entire region, and this will service all demographics," she said. "It will serve all the citizens who want to participate. It's just going to be exciting."

For more information, call Haglund at 509-667-7847 or access the Web site at www.gwreventscenter.com.