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The Lewis County Board of Commissioners hosted a meeting Tuesday afternoon to look at the first round of designs for a new equestrian center and other proposed changes at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds.
The July 1 meeting gathered a group of county employees and local stakeholders including local lawmaker Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, Fairgrounds Manager Fiona Valasquez, Southwest Washington Fair Advisory Board member Edna Fund, Lewis County Facilities Manager Doug Carey and community members.
The presentation offered the first glimpse at how a new equestrian center would fit into the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds. It was an opportunity for those in attendance to give feedback to Populous, the venue design firm contracted by Lewis County for the job.
During the meeting, Populous staff and the company's subcontractor, CSL International, gave two presentations. The first was a market analysis to show what kind of events the new facility might attract. The second showed the design of a potential layout for the fairgrounds, including the new equestrian center.
The most noteworthy takeaway from the meeting was the recommendation for constructing a 140-foot by 300-foot covered equestrian show ring with enough seating for 500 people.
The presentation was the first release of any design elements for the engineering process that began earlier this year. The end goal is to develop detailed engineering designs and estimates for costs so the county can begin applying for grant funding to build the project.
Construction is likely still years out.
The current effort is focused on design and engineering and is funded by a roughly $200,000 grant from the Washington state Department of Commerce secured largely thanks to the efforts of Abbarno, who serves on the Washington state House Capital Budget Committee.
“I just know that it's been a long time coming as far as improving these fairgrounds and turning them into what we all are going to be proud of and what our kids are going to be proud of and the next generation’s going to be proud of,” Abbarno said. “I appreciate the county commissioners for our shared emphasis on tourism, economic development and preserving the history and tradition of the fair. I think it's important to all four of us.”
While the main goal is to develop designs and layout for the proposed equestrian center, Populous presented a full master plan for the fairgrounds showing a potential layout and additional projects that could help update facilities, such as building new horse stall facilities, updating or repurposing older barns and adding more space for food vendors, dining and covered event space.
Changes proposed in the master plan would be approached in phases with the equestrian center likely to be the first to be built.
Market Analysis
The presentation by the subcontractor hired by Populous, CSL International, started off the meeting. Consultants presented their findings from a market analysis study. The goal of the analysis is to see how a new equestrian facility at the fairgrounds would compete in the local market and what kind of events the facility could attract. In the end, Joel Feldman and the CSL International team recommended a covered equestrian arena along with movable seating, new horse stalls, improved RV hookups and a number of other amenities such as dining areas and improved maintenance to make the facility competitive and attract new events.
“Our recommendations would be a covered 150-foot by 300-foot show ring with a minimum ceiling height of 35 feet, direct access to the warmup area and stall barns,” Feldman said. “The 50 RV hookups as well with nearby access because people like to stay near their animals and would like to make sure that they’re kept safe and sound.”
With a facility fitting the recommendations and the competition in the area for similar venues, CSL predicts that the fairgrounds could attract events ranging from 100 to 500 attendees. Feldman recognized that these events would be on the smaller side of the scale, but that starting with smaller events is to be expected for a venue with little presence on the venue market. He added that the facility would allow the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds to attract events it otherwise couldn’t host.
“This would give us that opportunity to at least be in the conversation and have a base of events that we would be able to attract and host that we are currently not able to have them consider Lewis County as a potential option,” Feldman said.
Layout and Concept Designs
After the market analysis, Populous Principal Charlie Kolarik presented the first glimpse at a layout of the fairgrounds, including the new equestrian center pitching a brand new covered show ring located in the northwest corner of the fairgrounds in an area referred to as the fair meadows camping. He stressed that the layout is the first of the group's findings and that they are looking for feedback and comments from stakeholders.
“Today is to present our current status of work for the Southwest Washington Fair master planning process,” Kolarik said. “This is intended on our part to be a work session to receive feedback; it's not intended to be proposing final recommendations.”
In addition to a new facility, Kolarik and his team pitched leaving the current showings intact to be used as warmup areas for events.
“By maintaining those as they exist and utilizing them as warmup spaces to a new facility, we have, I think, tried to try to leverage the existing facilities to the best as possible,” Kolarik said.
However, some in attendance pushed back a bit, asking that they consider adding a cover to at least one of the current show arenas, arguing that the outdoor facilities would be likely to go unused for most of the years because of how wet the ground gets from rain and groundwater.
Feldman also addressed their recommendation for an arena 10 feet shorter than what CSL international suggested, saying that the smaller arena would be more cost effective and did not change the use of the arena.
