Federal grant allows Gateway Visitor Center to move forward

About twenty years ago when the Glenn and Parks Highway interchange was completed, it posed a problem for the Mat-Su Convention and Visitor Bureau’s visitor center.  With a divided highway, the property’s location was no longer convenient for travelers to stop into for information.  Mat-Su CVB President and CEO Bonnie Quill says that was the first of a series of events that made the old visitor center non-viable.

“And then in 2006, the Mat-Su Regional Hospital was built adjacent to our little visitor center…and then in about [2010], the first two-lane roundabout was put in on Trunk Road. All of those things combined to make our location just not appropriate for a visitor center.”

The proposed answer, which began the pre-planning process about a decade ago, is the Gateway Visitor Center.  The new center is expected to be built near the Parks and Glenn interchange, but in a more accessible location. As with many projects, a slowdown in state capital funding delayed plans for the visitor center.  The project received new life last year when federal funding to strengthen local economies during the COVID-19 pandemic was increased.  The Mat-Su CVB and Mat-Su Borough applied for and received the necessary funds to move forward.

Quill says a survey shows than about thirty percent of prospective tourists indicated they would come to a visitor center.  She says that is a higher percentage than said they would attend a local festival or book a flightseeing tour.  Her belief is that, even though the Gateway center would be more than an hour south of Talkeetna, that it could help bring tourism dollars to the Northern Susitna Valley.

“People who visit welcome centers become more engaged, they stay longer, and they spend more money….I feel it’s going to link them to deeper experiences, spreading people out throughout the borough.”

There isn’t currently a timeline for construction on the visitor center, which would be owned by the borough and operated and maintained by MSCVB.  Quill says planning was stopped when funding ran out, so some details remain to be ironed out before a final plan can be approved.