The Arena Debate: What have we learned and what can we teach?
It's like a flashback in time right now, a City and its prized NHL team at odds over the future of their athletic program and critically, the home that they will play in. Fortunately for Edmontonians, it's not groundhog day in this Town, but rather, this is occurring in our Sister City of Calgary just three hours south. It's incredible how similar the situations compare to each other, and as Edmonton heads into our second NHL season in our new Rogers Place Arena, our comrades in Calgary are looking to us to see how they can replicate our successful model. It's easy for Edmonton folks to look back and pat each other on the backs for a job well done, but let's not forget that this arena and commercial development were built on doubt and division throughout the entire process. Rogers Place and more importantly to the City, the surrounding ICE District commercial development, were a ten year process, as can be seen by the following project timeline.
The Arena was the focus of the Katz Group, but what sold the project in the long run for Edmonton was the complex web of amenities that were developed around it in the ICE District. This included but was not limited to hotels, office towers, restaurants, bars, and residential towers. Arenas and stadiums themselves are not catalysts for a City's economy, but when there is a commercial development that is combined with these focal points, it creates a destination which can become transformative for a market. Specific to Edmonton, our downtown needed to be revitalized, it needed a new pulse. Many have and still do condemn the use of public dollars to fund a private investment such as this, but the impetus that allowed for this project to move forward was City Council's motivation to redevelop this particular area of Downtown Edmonton. The Arena and ICE District created a presence in a next to forgotten area of the core, and with their proceeding in construction, it created a belief in the City among all developers, further prompting additional development around the arena, $2 billion dollars worth, to be exact. I constantly hear from people who have not visited Edmonton in a few years that it FEELS different now, not to mention looks different. There is an energy in our City that wasn't here ten years ago.
Rogers Place Arena and surrounding development, under construction
So when I hear everyone getting worked up in Calgary about the turmoil between City Council, the current Mayor, and the Calgary Flames ownership, I want to remind everyone that it took us TEN YEARS to get here. The first version of a sports and entertainment development in Calgary - CalgaryNEXT - was only presented two years ago in 2015. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Calgary does not have the same issues as Edmonton had which formed the stimulus to this development getting the go ahead. Calgary does not need redevelopment of its core the way Edmonton did. Additionally, the initial scope of the CalgaryNEXT project is much larger than Edmonton's was as they are hoping to have an NHL calibre arena, paired with an CFL calibre field house for the Calgary Stampeders, who also desperately need a new home. I'm fully confident that in time, there will be a new Arena development in Calgary, but it will definitely take time, patience, and creativity. The Calgary Flames need to determine how they will spark development in the City with this sports facility, and their best bet is to combine it with a commercial development, in the same manner that the Katz Group did with the ICE District in Edmonton. They have to find something that the City of Calgary wants and work their development model to satisfy that problem.
CalgaryNEXT (Plan A) Development, modeled in the West Village along the Bow River
In the meantime, I invite my Calgary friends to come enjoy an evening out in Downtown Edmonton. Who knows, maybe you too can get your own awkward photo with our Connor McSaviour.
