Jeff
Lehmann (right), site superintendent of Ball Construction,
speaks with Bruce Alanbets of G&A Masonry who is working
on the media boxes as part of the expansion of the Kitchener
Memorial Auditorium.
(DAVID BEBEE, RECORD STAFF) |
KITCHENER -- This is no longer the Aud your parents remember.
Workers are ripping the guts out of the aging Kitchener Memorial
Auditorium to install luxury suites, lounges, new food concessions and
a restaurant over the ice.
Outside, the region's premier arena will have more lighting, more
paved parking and an expanded Ottawa Street entrance, after a house is
torn down next month.
It's all on track for the Sept. 20 home opener of the Kitchener
Rangers, the popular junior hockey club that draws more than 5,000 a
game.
"What's amazing is that the building was able to handle such a
dramatic change. There haven't been a lot of stumbling blocks,"
said Auditorium manager Kim Kugler.
Some critics have attacked the $7.5-million facelift as wasteful
public spending. But Kitchener council is persuaded the renovations
are needed if its 51-year-old arena is to compete with new arenas
around southern Ontario.
Work is well underway on 25 luxury suites of varying sizes. One
remains unsold; the city intends to retain three for single-event
rentals.
Corporate leases (ranging from $16,000 to $30,000 a year) are
expected to finance the upgrades.
Adding the suites will boost seating, but kill some popular
standing room around upper sides. This may be a downer for some fans.
On the upside, there will be a new lounge, restaurant and clearer
hallways when old food kiosks disappear. That's because walls have
been expanded outwards to house new food concessions off the hallways.
Construction crews found some surprises in excavating debris buried
around the Auditorium, a practice that has since been outlawed.
"We found all sorts of stuff as we excavated, from 50 years
ago," said Jeff Lehmann, site superintendent for Ball
Construction. "No skeletons."
This includes construction rubble, work shirts, an empty pack of
Sweet Caporal cigarettes complete with trademark playing card and
giant wooden timbers believed to be from an old army barracks on the
site.
