By Cheryl Jahn

The City wants to hear from you

Aug 3, 2023 | 3:48 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City wants to hear from you about what has been a contentious issue for years. The downtown and what residents of the city want to see happen with it, with an eye to homes for three existing facilities in mind.

“There are three main facilities that were in consideration for this site,” explains Wil Wedel, Manager of Development Services. “So Studio 2880 is one of the buildings, the P.G. Playhouse and of course the Kopar Memorial Arena at some point needs to be replaced as well. So our asset management team has kind of laid out that those ones are at or near the end of their life. And so we’re having consideration of including those within the redevelopment of this space.”

The parking lot that used to be the Four Seasons Leisure Pool and the former Fire Hall #1 across from it as well as the Kopar Memorial Arena. And the fate of all three of these properties is up for grabs.

“This is the area is a big enough center enough,” says Mayor Simon Yu. “We can put a lot of multi-purpose facilities here, such as a new convention center, a new 2880 studio. We can put a symphony hall as well as a new arena. We have all the land here and we have lots of parking facilities available here as well.”

On Demand

February 24, 2026: CKPG News on Demand

8h ago

Puerto Vallarta

Family of Prince George radio host impacted by Puerto Vallarta violence

11h ago

Ukraine refugees

Ukrainian refugees remain after four years

11h ago

But everyone will have a chance to say their piece on August 11th in person at Foodie Friday in Canada Games Plaza and with a subsequent survey through to the end of September.

“This is a standalone plan,” says Wedel. “So this is working on the smart growth that we started a number of years ago. And so it’s building on those aspects. So the idea is that this creates a plan. There are no defined specifics on exactly what size shape cheaper buildings. It’s about the ideas that are associated with that. And from there then we can go into detailed designs and things like that based on what the population is saying and as well as what the council is approving.”

But Mayor Yu is the first to admit not everyone will agree with his vision of the properties. “Even within a family, not everybody likes to watch hockey every night because maybe the husband likes to go watch hockey. The wife would like to go to listen to Symphony. Afterward, they want to find a place to have a glass of wine together. So we need to have this a multifunctional facility.”

Because of the ambitious nature of the project and the value of the land in question, the timeline is conservative.

“So we’re trying to do this over the next 6 to 12 months in order to try to grab that information and try to pull together a report. We haven’t set any firm deadlines because we know that there could be things that kind of shift us in one direction or another. But we want to make sure that we can kind of pull this entering this end as quickly as we possibly can.”

The planned area of the Civic Core District is limited to the municipally owned and operated properties surrounding City Hall, including: Kopar Memorial Arena, the Conference and Civic Centre, Canfor Leisure Pool, Prince George Public Library, Two Rivers Art Gallery and Civic Plaza.