If you had to say the Hub City had a "hub" for sporting and recreation, it would have to be Beban Park. This 52 hectare (128 acres) park located off Bowen Road is Nanaimo's largest City-owned recreation campus.
The park is named after the Beban family who lived and farmed there in from the 1930s-1950s. Beban house was the home of the Beban's for over 20 years. A local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club currently resides in Beban House.
The park features a wide variety of recreation amenities.
In the Beban Park complex you will find Frank Crane and Cliff McNabb arena, a pool, leisure pool, teaching pool, weight room and a social centre.
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Altrusa park playground, a Participark and a dog off-leash park are located on the grounds of Beban Park. As are two artificial turf fields that can be accessed off dorman road and the Gyro Youth Sports Fields.
Moving through the park, you will find the agriplex, barns and stables that are the main features of the Vancouver Island Exhibition (VIEX) held every year in the summer. A petting farm maintained by the 4-H Club is held in this area every summer. This area also features an equestrian centre.
Other amenities include a lawn bowling green, golf course and driving range, tennis courts, pickleball courts (as a one-year pilot program), community gardens, the Lions sports pavilion and a BMX track.
We recently updated the Beban Park Master Plan to fit changing community needs for the park over the next 20 years. Implementation of this plan will depend on community partnerships and will be completed in many phases over the long term.