Turn Cloverdale into a modern entertainment complex?

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Linda Annis, she wants to be mayor of Surrey and she's running under the slate of Surrey First. And one of the things she wants to do if she becomes mayor is turn the Cloverdale Fairgrounds into a multi-sport aquatic entertainment and shopping center. Now, keep in mind that the city of Surrey will be home to a mixed-use entertainment complex in downtown Surrey featuring a 10,000-seat arena. Well, Linda Annis joins us now. Linda, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you so much for having me on this afternoon. Well, we just have a few more days until Surrey votes. Why don't you tell us why we need this new complex and what is happening at Cloverdale Fairgrounds right now?

Well, finally, after 88 years, we have a plan for the Cloverdale Fairgrounds. It's been long overdue and we need to invest in the fairgrounds. There's 100 acres there. a very unique site. And what we're wanting to do is make it home to regional sport, entertainment and shopping destination. And of course, don't accommodate the Cloverdale Rodeo.

As I mentioned, we already, not we, but the city of Surrey is going to be home to a complex similar to that. Why do you need two of those?

First of all, I'd like to address the ice arena that's planned for City Centre. To me, this is not something that should be built with taxpayers' money, and I don't think it's the right thing for City Centre. What we should be doing in City Centre is building more conference facilities there. I think it makes much more sense. People go to an ice arena to watch a game. They may have dinner there. But if you have a conference center, it generally attracts visitors that come for three days, and they spend significantly more money. Average is about $1,000 per visit. So if we're really wanting to build the economy in city center, we need to put something in that will become a destination for conferences. And right now, we don't have much conference facilities in city center. In fact, we've really got none. But isn't the goal of that complex to include hotels? The goal is to include hotels, but not a conference center of any significance. And what we would be proposing in city center is building a 1,000-seat conference facility as well as a cultural and entertainment component to it, too, that would have a 2,000-seat facility. facility for people to watch concerts and things like that, concerts and other arts activities.

Okay, but let's go back to the Cloverdale Fairgrounds. You're saying that there would be no city money involved?

Yes, what I'm looking to is to do some P3s, private-public partnerships. So what the city would do is we would have the land and we