Borough moves ahead with plans for 2 new visitors centers

PALMER — By the end of the year, Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Mat-Su Borough expect to finalize acquisition of the 49-acre site near the interchange of the Glenn and Parks highways to house a new $7 million Gateway Visitor Center.

The 12,000-square-foot center was the subject of a presentation at the visitors bureau’s annual meeting Friday. The land was most recently home to Homestead RV Park, but Matanuska Electric Association purchased the land in January 2012 as part of a transmission line upgrade project. When the co-op heard of plans to place the new visitors center on the site, MEA began working to make the property available to the borough for the visitors center, according to MSCVB Executive Director Bonnie Quill.

MSCVB has operated the visitors center since the current 4,000-square-foot log structure was built in 1989. The nonprofit manages the current visitors center and will manage the new center, but the borough owns both, Quill said.

She said the Legislature appropriated $1 million this year for the purchase of the site and the plan is to ask for another $5 million next year. That, plus $2 million from the borough from the sale of the visitors center’s present four-acre site should cover the design and construction of the new facility.

“There is definitely commercial interest in our property,” Quill said.

She said this visitors center located between Palmer and Wasilla along the Glenn Highway was one of three needs recommended in a 2008 study called “Matanuska-Susitna Borough Tourism Infrastructure Needs.”

The borough also has begun construction on the South Denali Visitors Center in Denali State Park at the northern edge of the borough after the borough included $7 million for that project in its capital budget this year.

Quill said visitors centers enrich travelers’ experience in the area and encourage them to extend their Mat-Su visit.

She said they began studying locations for the new center and the idea’s feasibility after receiving an $114,000 National Scenic Byways grant to “develop a plan for a new ‘gateway’ partnership visitor center.”

“Partnership” is a key word in this project, Quill said. She said these partnerships will help spread out the center’s operating costs and enable MSCVB to offer visitors a richer experience.

Partners in the new visitors center are Alaska State Parks, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Railroad, Mat-Su Borough, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Knik Tribal Council, Chickaloon Native Village, CIRI, cities of Palmer and Wasilla, Great Land Trust and Alaskans for Palmer Hay Flats.

“It’s not just about us,” Quill said. “The success of this whole facility is on those partners.”

She said the partners have been working together on the idea for a few years, but now the conversation will get more specific about what each of those relationships will look like.

Quill said the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center was the model for the Mat-Su project.

“There are a wealth of opportunities for it to be a resources to this state and our community,” she said.

Quill said part of the borough’s agreement with MEA is to grant it right of way across the property for the project. She said the power lines will run below the bluff and will not impact the property’s viewshed.

“The value of that property is the view from the bluff,” she said. “We walked through it with the engineers and architects and there is no conflict.”

For more information, visit matsuvalleyvisitorcenter.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.