Hundreds of enthusiastic people came out to celebrate the grand opening of the Avenir Centre – the new $113 million dollar event centre on Main Street.
The crowd filled the Ian Fowler Oval immediately outside the centre as Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold, flanked by other councillors, used a pair of oversized scissors to officially cut the ribbon.
Arnold then spoke with residents in the atrium as they toured the facility.
“People are really blown away, they can’t believe how beautiful it is, how big it is, the light,” exclaimed Arnold. “They’re just really thrilled, I haven’t heard one negative anything, [they] even like the bathrooms, so that’s good.”
She adds one of the highlights of the project is the community gathering space in the plaza.
“A lot of people said how pleasant it was to walk down Main Street and see other people walking, and feel like you’re part of something,” says Arnold. “I think that that is going to be absolutely critical to the success of this because it isn’t just the building, it is that public gathering space, and the walk to get there, all part of the experience.”
Bird Construction Project Director Steve Leger says more than 90 per cent of the approximately 100 contractors and suppliers working on this project were from New Brunswick, and a majority of those were from the Moncton area adding this is a project built “for Monctonians, by Monctonians.”
