Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

CONSTRUCTION ON THE MOUNTAIN

Sun Peaks hopeful new facility will boost summer visits

Aug 2, 2019 | 4:54 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — Sun Peaks is one of B.C.’s premier winter destinations.

However, the resort has always struggled to attract as many visitors once the snow melts. That’s why the resort municipality has undertaken a significant construction project. The hope is that this new facility will help attract more visitors to the resort municipality outside of their peak season.

Sun Peaks is a winter wonderland that draws visitors from across North America and all over the world to our region. But when the snow melts, the resort municipality doesn’t bring in visitors nearly as well.

“We’re probably double in those peak winter months compared to the summer,” Arlene Schieven, President and CEO of Tourism Sun Peaks says. “So if we’re pushing 80 per cent occupancy [in the winter], we’re about half that in our summers.”

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One of the ways the community plans to draw more summer visitors is by building the Sun Peaks Centre. It’s a multi-use facility that could hosts concerts, trade shows, and a wide variety of other events.

“It’s pretty ambitious,” Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine tells CFJC Today. “It’s almost $9 million in total, and our goal is to really bring stronger summer business to Sun Peaks.”

Construction began after the snow melted and was moving along well. However, poor soil quality at the site means crews have to screw in individual footings to hold up the roof that will shelter the ice surface.

“That was a bit of surprise to us,” Raine says. “A costly surprise. Almost half a million dollars.”

Two-thirds of the project’s budget has come from the Federal Gas Tax Fund, with a further two million coming from the Province’s Resort Municipality Initiative.

Schieven believes a facility like the Sun Peaks Centre has the potential for a huge upside.

“Having something that will allow us to host events and conferences will help spread that business throughout the year,” she says, adding “that’s going to be a huge benefit to Sun Peaks.”

“We’ve got employees, we’ve got businesses that really need year-round [trade] to thrive,” Raine says. “We certainly want to make sure we’re not having to re-train employees every winter because they’re just coming for the winter only. We want a larger employee base working year-round and sustaining the community.”

The roof over the ice surface is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2019 winter season, while the rest of the Sun Peaks Centre should be finished by summer 2020.