Ground broken on pavilion

The new Curry County Multi-Purpose Livestock Pavilion is expected to host the 2024 Curry County Fair's livestock competitors after ground was broken Wednesday for construction of the $15 million, nearly 58,000-square-foot facility.

Upon completion, expected in early summer 2024, according to Curry County Manager Lance Pyle, the new, enclosed arena will feature 250 stalls for animals and 23 wash bays for livestock grooming, 15 garage door bays, a new show office, a pedestrian mall with sidewalks and new restrooms.

The new facility will be built on the site of the fairgrounds' current open-air livestock pens.

At the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, Pyle told the assembled local and state officials and elected representatives, that the beginning of construction on the new livestock arena marks the successful end of nearly two decades of struggle to gain the approvals and collect the funds to construct the facility.

The idea for the expanded livestock arena goes back to the early 2000s, Pyle said, "but because of other pressing needs of the county and the availability of funds it kept being moved back."

County commissioners and others, however, "never forgot about it and several of you here would not allow it to be forgotten...You kept us all focused."

It became apparent when the Curry County Events Center opened at the fairgrounds in 2009, Pyle said, "what we were missing out on because we did not have facilities needed for covered stalls."

The new pavilion, he said, then became a part of the county's master plan and has remained there, awaiting funds, ever since.

The money from state and federal funds was collected this year, Pyle said. The sources include:

State of New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Grant, $6,500,000.

2023 Legislative Session Capital Outlay, $1,024,000.

Spectra/OVG Managers (site management firm for the Curry Events Center) contribution, $133,400.27

American Rescue Act federal funds, $4,640,290.48.

The total of outside funding, was nearly, $12.3 million, Pyle said, with the remaining $2.8 million coming from county funds.

Of the county's total investment of $15 million, he said, $14 Million covers construction cost.

Following presentations by the pavilion's architect, Stephen Teeters of Formative Architecture; Chris Weil of Weil Construction, the general contractor; and Curry County Commission Chairman Bob Thornton, officials grabbed safety vests, gold-painted shovels and hard-hats and lined up along a patch of soil to dig and throw out the symbolic first ground to be broken for the project.

Following the ceremony, guests were invited to sign a wall square that will be displayed in the completed pavilion.

The new pavilion will be "great" for Clovis, said Economic Development Executive Director Tina Dziuk. "A lot of bigger equine events require more up to date facilities."

The pavilion's improved equine facilities have earned it the informal nickname "horse hospitality," Dziuk said, a phrase she attributed to Curry County Events Center Director K.C. Messick.

Dziuk said Clovis wants to be able to draw bigger events and the center will have more stalls and wash stalls.

"We're going to be able to compete for the events that we haven't been able to have in the past," Dziuk said.