March 5, 2010
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Downtown arena could include practice facilities, student residences
A proposed downtown arena district may soon transform Edmonton’s city centre, and, as the list of potential construction features rise, development interests at the University of Alberta and other postsecondary institutions are piquing.
Billionaire Edmontonian Daryl Katz committed $100 million towards a new arena for the city when he purchased the Edmonton Oilers. Now Katz’s arena proposal has morphed into a downtown revitalization project which may cost much more than originally planned. City Councilor Bryan Anderson believes that Katz may require the strong support to realize his vision and the U of A may be one of the groups getting behind him.
“It is easier to make an arena pay if you have two or more tenants,” Anderson said. “The Katz group has a very large vision [and] it requires a variety of partners with both interest and the ability to finance a variety of pieces.”
U of A Vice President (Facilities and Operations) Don Hickey believes that although the arena itself may not be incentive for getting involved in the project, other parts of the Katz proposal might be.
“It’s not attractive to have [student] residences around an arena [but] to have residences in and around an urban redevelopment could be rather interesting,” Hickey explained. “Since [adding] Enterprise Square we’ve continually said that we would continue to look for opportunities to increase our presence downtown.”
“It really has to be an urban renewal project to create a downtown community; an increased presence downtown is good for the city and good for the university,” Hickey added.
As president and CEO of the Edmonton Oilers, and former Chair of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Patrick LaForge agreed that such a vision will be a challenge. But he believes that the promise of such a project is worth the commitment.
“Downtown revitalization is critically important to Edmonton, [so] this is the brightest and most exciting thing to come along for downtown [Edmonton] in decades,” he said.
LaForge outlined part of the Katz group vision and what might be found at the site north of 104 Avenue and flanked by 101 Street and 105 Street. Besides the 18,000–19,000-seat arena and proposed student residences, a lot is also being considered.
“The site contemplates an arena that has a practice arena in it. It also contemplates a couple of hotels; maybe a casino; maybe some convention space; maybe some office space,” LaForge said.
Government buildings, arts and culture venues similar to the Winspear, and perhaps facilities for an extension of the MacEwan University theatre program are all other possible additions. There’s also talk of the practice arena servicing the MacEwan Griffins, Nait Ooks, and on occasion, the U of A Golden Bears.
Dan Mason, a specialist in leisure and sport strategic management at the U of A, believes that the downtown location of an arena is vital not only to urban renewal but also to the integrity of the modern sports entertainment facility.
“After [the 1950s], you had the movement of people out of the downtown into suburban locations [and] the downtown core had basically been gutted,” Mason explained.
“From a city planning perspective, it makes more sense to do this downtown.”
Perhaps one of the major reasons that postsecondary institutions and the provincial government are being offered new infrastructure within the arena district is owed to the question of whether public funding should be used in addition to private funding for construction.
“The Arena Feasibility Study concluded three things: the feasibility for an arena is [very high], the arena should be downtown, and it should be a P3 project — it should involve [both] public and private investment,” LaForge said.
Despite the study’s findings, Anderson still has doubts. He and other city councillors believe that a new arena that competes with Northlands will have difficulty financing itself post-construction.
“I don’t know if there’s enough support on city council to contribute public funds to a downtown arena,” Anderson contended. “No city in its right mind can operate two large venues like Rexall Place and a downtown arena at the same time — they would both go broke.”
Regardless of who funds it, Mason believes that the project will require much teamwork.
“In a perfect world, no public funds would go into [an arena], but I don’t think the Oilers could build this all on their own and sustain it,” he said.
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