New downtown Saskatoon arena: Here's where the city's at
City of Saskatoon's latest update says work is taking longer than originally expected
Long story short: we still don't know exactly when the City of Saskatoon will tell the public which sites are in the running to host a new downtown arena and entertainment district.
But what's clear from the city's latest update on Wednesday is that the work is taking longer than originally expected.
"Council and the public demand that the administration get it right," Mark Rogstad, a city spokesperson, said Thursday.
According to the Wednesday update, the city is "still optimistic" the list of candidate sites can be released publicly "at some point in 2020." That's off from the city's original plan, which aimed to have a decision on possible sites by the end of last year. Given the uncertainty, that could potentially even land after the Nov. 9 civic election.
At least one pundit has said he expects the arena will be an election issue.
Here's a brief timeline of how we got here, and what to expect next.
November 2018: City council decides that if an arena is built, it should be downtown, in a larger entertainment district.
April 2019: The city releases its original plan.
According to that plan, "To ensure the best chance of realizing the most advantageous vision of a downtown entertainment district, centred around a downtown arena and convention centre, work is underway with the goal of making a site selection for these facilities in 2019."
September 2019: The city releases an update on the process that contains no estimated timetable for revealing the candidate sites. It does indicate the city will have to negotiate with the owners of private parcels of potential sites merely to "legally secure" them for potential future purchase.
Dec. 24, 2019: Lesley Anderson, the city's director of planning and development, tells CBC News the goal is to make a site selection "in the new year." The final decision on location, whenever it comes, will be made by city council, she confirms.
March 2020: City council is expected to get a "further and more detailed" update from the city at this time, although it's unclear if that update will include the disclosure of the candidate sites.
"[The team is] investing significant efforts on pre-planning because we want to be able to present city council with the best possible array of potential sites where the city can focus planning efforts," Rogstad said.
Negotiations with private land owners are taking longer than expected, according to the city's latest update.
"Although positive progress continues to be made, final agreements are not yet in place. Additional time will be required to finalize the site selection process."
One of the sites believed to be a possibility is the parking lot across the street from the Bay and TCU Centre. Terry Napper, the general manager of Midtown Plaza, previously said the mall is not interested in selling.
"That could be posturing just to drive the price up," said Bertrand Bartake, a local architect who recently sparked a lively online discussion about possible, though unofficial, sites for the new arena.
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The city has hired two outside firms, Oak View Group and Katz Group/Shugarman Architecture, to help with the development of the district.
The firms have "recent experience in siting and developing facilities of this type, including aspects such as site design, patron access, site access (loading/unloading, etc.) and other technical considerations," according to the Wednesday update.
Sometime after March 2020?
The city declined to specify whether the list of candidate sites will be disclosed during the March 2020 update to city council.
The Wednesday update contains no firm disclosure date.
"At this time, the administration is still optimistic that the sites considered, the technical merits of each site, and the perspectives of external experts can still be made available to the public at some point in 2020," according to that update.
"Following that, the city will seek feedback from the public" — including a pubic open house.
"The feedback gathered will be added to the technical advice in the final report and recommendation on site selection to city council."
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