Opening Weekend a Big Draw for Meridian Community Centre
The official grand opening of the Meridian Community Centre took place Sept. 14 and 15 in Pelham, Ontario. The weekend celebration included a VIP reception, ribbon cutting, live entertainment, a community open house and an NHL Alumni hockey game on Saturday night. Approximately 1,000 residents attended the festivities.
Largely due to our value engineering approach, Ball was able to complete this construction management project on time and under budget, with a substantial savings of over $700,000.
According to Ball project coordinator, Ian Desrosiers, “After an initial scaling down to a more reasonable size of 143,000 square feet, we worked closely with all project stakeholders in order to bring the town of Pelham’s final vision to reality.”
Twenty-five years in the making, Pelham’s arena project exceeded its fundraising goal of $3-million, thanks to a $1 million dollar grant from the Meridian Group.
The two-storey, fully accessible mixed-use facility is the largest capital project in Pelham’s history and has many features:
- Twin-pad NHL-sized rinks, one with 1,000 seats
- A double gymnasium
- Community meeting rooms
- A large community multi-purpose space
- An indoor walking track
Ball’s creative, team-based approach to managing the build helped ensure its success. The building has been open and operational since July 20 and there’s been a lot of positive feedback.
