From CBC.ca/NB
Moncton downtown centre moves ahead
Council votes to buy Highfield Square property and shortlists 2 developers
CBC News
Posted: Jun 18, 2013 11:40 AM AT
Last Updated: Jun 18, 2013 12:03 PM AT
Moncton city council took two big steps towards building a $105-million downtown sports and entertainment centre on Monday night. Council voted 8-2 in favour of purchasing the 11-acre former Highfield Square property on Main Street for $6 million. Coun. Paul Pellerin and Coun. Brian Hicks voted against it.
The option to buy the land was scheduled to expire on July 3 and council now has to close the deal within 60 days of that date. The former shopping centre will be demolished and the city hopes to build an event centre on the site. Jacques Dubé, the city manager, says the property is a great deal as it has already gone up in value since the price was negotiated in the option to purchase the land.
"Our own appraisal shows that property is worth $10 million," Dubé said.
"The sale price was negotiated at $6 million so we're buying a piece of property that the market now establishes at $10 million worth of value."
In addition to the $6 million purchase price, Dubé says the city will have to spend between $2.5 million and $6 million to demolish the former mall and clean up any hazardous waste on the site, including hydrocarbons and asbestos.
Council shortlists 2 developers
Moncton council also agreed on Monday to begin negotiations with two national firms which have expressed interest in building the downtown event centre. Bird Construction Inc., Ellis Don Corporation and L'Aréna des Canadiens Inc. had all expressed interest in bidding for the project, but Dubé said only two have qualified to move forward to the request for proposals stage.
Bird Construction built the Thunderbird Sports Centre for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Ellis Don is known for Toronto's Rogers Centre and L'Aréna des Canadiens built the Bell Centre which is home to the Montreal Canadiens. In his report to councillors, Dubé said L'Aréna des Canadiens Inc. was "non-compliant" while Ellis Don Corporation received a final score of 71.5 per cent and Bird Construction a score of 80.17 per cent.
The companies were evaluated on experience, understanding of the project and methodology, which included experience working with a public authority.
Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...purchased.html
Personal note:
Ellis Don also built the John Labatt Centre (now known as Budweiser Gardens) in London, ON. That arena can hold approx 9100 for end stage concerts so it should give you an idea of what Moncton's new Event Centre might be like.
Despite the rumblings that tax-payers might be on the hook for this project, I'm so used to such being the case by now for these kinds of projects that it doesn't phase me at all at this point. Glad this went through instead of being killed-off completely. Also glad they didn't opt to do some sort of half-arsed retrofit for existing Coliseum either.
Maybe by 2018, Moncton will start seeing concerts & other major events stop here instead of bypassing us for Halifax. Would also be great once and for all if the Moncton vs. Halifax concert feud could be put to an end by this since concerts would be stopping in BOTH cities vs. only going to one.