Calgary Arena’s “reboot” could include a new downtown location

Calgary’s event center plan is not locked into the current Victoria Park location as the sides are required to explore all options for a new arena.

The events center committee held its first meeting in 2023, with the updated information shared behind closed doors.

When the committee last met, the city announced that it had entered into formal negotiations with the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) through sports consulting firm CAA ICON.

Back then, Coun. Sonya Sharp, the chair of the events center’s committee, said it was a fresh start. Apparently, this also includes a potential location for the new arena.

Sharp was asked if they were considering an event center location outside of the Rivers District. The Rivers District is the area immediately surrounding the Calgary Stampede site and is governed by the Rivers District Master Plan. The cultural and entertainment district is one of the distinctive aspects of the Rivers District plan and the intent was for the arena to anchor the area.

“Coming back to the conversation I think we had in early fall, we talked about this being a fresh start,” Sharp said.

“So this is a fresh start. And we’re looking… I mentioned we’re looking at building an event center in the city, downtown, and all sorts of options are being presented.”

When asked if the West Village area was a viable option, Sharp said she couldn’t confirm that. The 2009 West Village redevelopment plan is still on the City of Calgary’s books.

There is speculation that the West Village location, home of the CalgaryNext arena project in the 2010s, is still high on CSEC’s list of preferred locations. This $1.8 billion redevelopment project with a proposed $890 million arena and multisport field home was canceled in 2017.

This area still needs to be renovated. It was once the former site of Canada Cresote. Recent discussions with the Calgary provincial government caucus addressed the remediation of this site, LiveWire Calgary has learned.

Time is of the essence: Sharp

This first meeting of the new year was an opportunity for the administration to provide an update as well as CAA-ICON’s deal structure advisors.

CAA-ICON had an initial meeting with the province, Sharp said.

Sharp said she could not publicly comment on the negotiations between CAA-ICON and CSEC. She is not sitting at the negotiating table, and no other Council member would come into negotiations either. However, the timeline for a potential deal is unclear.

“I’m very happy with where we’re going and things are going quite well,” Sharp said.

“We know that time is of the essence, and we also work with cost increases. So projects, the sooner they happen the better when it comes to time and money.”

Sharp said keeping these matters confidential is part of maintaining a healthy relationship with her partners. She said you see it in a lot of projects – Green Line, Arts Commons and others.

“I’ll say we’ll update as the project progresses,” she said.

The committee is expected to resume its monthly meeting schedule.

Source: livewirecalgary.com