New Arena for Downtown Edmonton

[Kevin_foster]

so much steel

[Rocket252]

The Project Managers should get a gold medal for making sure this thing gets built properly. Unbelievable complexity in planning.

[CMD UW]

Fantastic shots Bulliver.

[Daveography]

^^ I suspect when it's all done, there will be a few awards going around for this thing. Such an incredible project.

[Jasper and one o nin]

The size and scale of the arena is massive. Much larger than I anticipated. Quite remarkable.

[Airboy]

When I was near the site today on another project I noticed the Air Handling units are now in place.

[EdmTrekker]

I saw what looked like one warped AH unit getting pushed off a truck, flipped and made quite the bang at the Museum site today. I was waiting to turn left on 97 street with window rolled down and witnessed what I thought was very rough handling.

[Coldrsx]

Arena community benefits meeting tonight, Mr. Lowe has joined in place Mr. laforge.

Construction update was good, on time, budget, no lost time due to accidents.

Expect 6 more cranes in the area by end of summer.

Turnover from PCL anticipated to be September 2, 2016.

Plaza grand opening will be about 2-3 yrs behind, full opening a few after that ie. Greyhound development.

CRL anticipated to be about $250,000,000 above expectations even after that 32mil and 80 mil for operations

EPS presentation again about their plans, sounds like 200-300 admin into City Tower with a temp presence ^in Greyhound for operations.

Parking plan update, E-park, plate registry for some residents, non game night no rate changes ie. free after 6 and Sunday to remain.

[Coldrsx]

Oh and pieces of public art on the NE, NW exterior corners along with one more inside.

[Socguy]

Looks like the big lift is going to happen right away if anyone wants to pull up the webcam.

[MalcolmTucker]

Well, they really shouldn't count the City of Edmonton tower towards the CRL amount...

An even worse case of paper shuffling than the normal CRL process.

[Coldrsx]

^why not? It is a private development within the CRL boundary and part of the reason it was chosen.

[hilman]

^ Plus not all space is taken by the City (RBC just leased two floors).

[Calgarian]

Man, this thing is MASSIVE! hope to get up there this summer and check it out in person.

[MalcolmTucker]

If the city built a new library but leased it from a private company should that count as long as the private company also leased space to a coffee shop?

Now that we have likely ended the era of education property tax rates going down, it will be interesting to see if future CRLs are structured to transfer the education portion to the CRL fund as well.

What a ridiculous system of cross subsidies. It would have been nice to see future projections about the amount of forgone tax revenue as property tax points in the rest of the city.

[Xelebes]

How did the city build the building if all the money it spent was for the arena?

[Socguy]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

If the city built a new library but leased it from a private company should that count as long as the private company also leased space to a coffee shop?

A private company built a building in a CRL area in which the city and others have agreed to lease space... So if follows that the city should exempt that building and it's owner from the CRL because the city fronted money to an arena going up next door...

[MalcolmTucker]

The city is getting money back that the city pays a third party. If the city owned the building there would be no crl dollars. Using the flow through to fund other projects like it is found money just seems a bit much.

[Makenosmallplans]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

The city is getting money back that the city pays a third party. If the city owned the building there would be no crl dollars. Using the flow through to fund other projects like it is found money just seems a bit much.

Yes, but they would then also have the asset on their balance sheet and would presumably generate additional revenue by leasing the floors of the building they are not using. I think one of the benefits with this leasing model is it ensures the city does not have to be an expert in commercial real estate/leasing and the risks of maximizing leasing revenue transferred to people who do that for a living and are motivated to make an income from it. The 'own vs. lease' dilemma exists for everyone. alternatively, if the building was already there and privately owned the economics of the decision would still be the same. I think you are confusing the fact that it is being built next to the EAD with an assumption that it is part of the transaction. from what I could see the only connection they share is geographic and that it is included in the CRL overlay.

[Shodan]

Staples: Edmonton arena district exceeding expectations of its most ardent backers

By David Staples, Edmonton Journal
May 26, 2015 6:02 PM

Katz Group vice-president Glen Scott says Edmonton’s downtown arena district construction “is the shiny star in Alberta at the moment.”

Something remarkable, unexpected and historic is happening in Edmonton’s downtown.

Even by the high standards of revitalization set by North America’s most successful arena districts in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, the related condo, office and hotel development around their arenas didn’t happen nearly so fast as it is happening in Edmonton.

New arenas opened in Los Angeles in 1999 and in Columbus in 2000, but the L.A. Live arena district only got a hotel after 10 years and is only now getting two office towers nearby. Columbus’s Nationwide Arena district still has no office towers, no hotel and it took a decade for its one condo tower to open...

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