As the site of Moncton’s new downtown events centre is prepped for construction, concerns are being raised about how the city will accommodate more than 10,000 people at a facility with only 3,000 parking spaces.

“There are a number of municipalities in North America that have adopted the same model, where there is no specific parking on site,” says city spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc.

“We’re going to explain to people a little bit more in detail as to how that’s going to work, how we’re going to improve our transit system, and we are a little over two years out.”

Anne Poirier Basque, the executive director of Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc., says the events centre could look to existing parking lot owners for help.

“Forty-two per cent of our downtown property is already taken up by surface parking,” she says.

A public information session was held Monday evening, giving residents the chance to hear from the contractor and architects.

Construction is slated to begin in the spring, once the snow is gone, and will take nearly two years to complete. The design will accommodate a wide range of events.

“I think a lot of people didn’t realize exactly what it was going to bring to the downtown, probably just thought that it was an arena,” says Poirier Basque.

“The downtown is going to become a destination now, and a place where there’s a lot of movement,” says LeBlanc.

The centre will be more than just a hockey rink, but the Moncton Wildcats will likely be its main tenant. The club says it is looking forward to negotiating with the managing company.

“We’re working with our season ticketholders. They have a lot of questions. Our partners have a lot of questions,” says Ryan Jenner, director of business operations for the Moncton Wildcats. “And so part of these negotiations with SMG is to learn more about that.”

The next step in the project is a public consultation meeting that will be held on Nov. 25. A time and location for the meeting has yet to be set, but the city says it is expecting a great deal of public interest.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Sarah Ritchie