[Moncton] Centre Avenir Centre | 26.65m |~6 Fl | Completed

[MonctonRad]

This link will take you to a video flyby of the new events centre.

https://twitter.com/NSteinbach_RC/st...90536122630144

[MonctonRad]

This rendering shows the green space on the corner of Main/Highfield along the east side of the new events centre.



It looks as if there will be a standalone box office on the corner of Main/Highfield. Highfield St. will be reopened south of Main. The building on the east side of Highfield will be a condo tower on a retail podium. I'm not sure, but it looks to be about eight stories tall. I wonder if this has been approved as well?

[David_99]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The building on the east side of Highfield will be a condo tower on a retail podium. I'm not sure, but it looks to be about eight stories tall. I wonder if this has been approved as well?

Unless the Aquilinis are involved, it's likely just there for "potential". Much like the rendered buildings on Downey. It looks better fully developed than a parking lot. Although, there is that $3.5M in the Event Centre budget listed as "the sale on ancillary land". Could it be this land? Was that ever touched upon?

[L'homard]

Originally Posted by Monctoncore

The big question now is... Will we hear about this other 100 million in investments that was waiting for today..

I think that sum was $70 million. Just going by memory.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by L'homard

I think that sum was $70 million. Just going by memory.

I don't think we actually have any accurate idea what the value of the additional projects which might possibly occur now that the events centre has been announced. For example, we have no idea what the Aquillini's have planned for the Crowne Plaza block.

I think the ultimate value of these other potential projects might be much greater than $70M.

[cbujold]

Will this also included a conference centre?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by cbujold

Will this also included a conference centre?

Not sure. The original concept was to have some meeting space too. I don't know if that's still the case or not.

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Not sure. The original concept was to have some meeting space too. I don't know if that's still the case or not.

Din't Mayor Leblanc say something during a news conference that they where possibly looking for private investors to build commercial, residential, and office space on the land that would be unused. Meaning the area between Highfield, and the tracks.

[MonctonRad]

Here is the best render yet of the events centre:



And from Councillor Dawn Arnold's Facebook page:

What a night! We approved the capital funding plan for the DT Centre and awarded the RFP for the Design, Build, Short-Term Finance, Operations and Maintenance to Bird Construction Inc...and we were done by 7:30! After so many years of working on this project, what a wonderful feeling to have it approved and to be able to move forward on such a positive, proactive, prudent and sustainable investment in our city's future. As I've said all the way along, two of the best things about this project for me were that there was an affordability cap (meaning that it can't go over a certain price...and no one gets paid until the centre is finished) and also that there is an operating and maintenance agreement (the centre will be operated by SMG Canada -- they own 230 facilities worldwide, 39 of which are stand alone events centres, just like this one -- they will be negotiating with the tenants, not council, since you've seen that we aren't particularly good at that!).

So, I'm sure you want details!

- There will be 9,088 fixed seats, and 10,400 concert seats.
- The ceiling height will be 55 ft (the Coliseum is 19 ft).
- They plan 150+ events per year (3:1 / entertainment:sport) and I found their projections very realistic.
- There will be an outdoor plaza (with a large skating surface, water features, public art, water fountains, etc.).

There is a set amount of money that they will be paying us yearly (this won't be public until the final legal and financial close on September 30th). I'm sure there will be pictures in tomorrow's paper (sorry, I don't have an electronic copy). Grand opening is slated for September 1, 2018. Let me know if you have questions.

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I don't think we actually have any accurate idea what the value of the additional projects which might possibly occur now that the events centre has been announced. For example, we have no idea what the Aquillini's have planned for the Crowne Plaza block.

I think the ultimate value of these other potential projects might be much greater than $70M.

Does the company, and/or people Aquillini's own the old YWCA building?, and the old Acadian lines building as well as the Crowne Plaza. If so I'm wondering if there planing on expanding the Hotel, and commercial store fronts

[BlackYear]

Aquillini has a great opportunity in front of them. They can easily partake in a partnership to connect both the events centre and Crown Plaza via an enclosed pedway.

They could also flatten the front part of all the Main street shops and rebuild the whole thing from new, including a new 2-6 story retail complex at former bus station corner. Either way, when you look at Aquillini's previous/upcoming projects in Vancouver, you can just imaging of what the potential can bring between Highfield/Main/Bonnacord.

The future looks bright! I'm excited to see what develops!!!!

[JHikka]

9,088 for hockey is good. 10,000 for concerts is also good. That's all the hurdles I really had regarding the design.

Comparables:
Scotiabank Place, Halifax (10,595)
TD Place, Ottawa (9,862)
New Moncton Arena (9,088)
Budweiser Gardens, London (9,046)
Harbour Station, Saint John (6,297)

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Scarface

Does the company, and/or people Aquillini's own the old YWCA building?, and the old Acadian lines building as well as the Crowne Plaza. If so I'm wondering if there planing on expanding the Hotel, and commercial store fronts

As Budyser alluded to in his above post, Aquillini owns the whole damned Crowne Plaza block. They are a major BC based development company and own the Vancouver Canucks as well as the arena they play in. The potential for synergy between Aquillini and our new events centre could be quite fabulous.

[Hali87]

Renderings look great! Nice to see a major sports/event facility on the East Coast in this style - very "this-generation" and reminiscent of the arenas and stadiums being built out west right now. I think the success of the district will rest on whether other smaller and medium-sized venues locate around it, so there's still something bringing people in on non-game/non-concert evenings. It's too bad the casino (and from what I've heard, potentially relocated Crystal Palace) are so far from this area.

[MonctonRad]

Now that the decision has been made, perhaps it's time to address the elephant in the room - parking.

I know the city is really pushing for people to use transit to get to and from the events centre, but I really don't think our transit infrastructure is evolved enough to move that many people quickly enough to make this viable. The city also states that there are 3,000 parking spaces within a 10 minute walk of the centre. That might be true, but a lot of them are on street parking spaces which may or may not be cleared out in the wintertime following major snowstorms (see last winter when the situatiion was so bad it put some downtown businesses on the verge of bankruptcy). Another issue is that this will be a "regional" centre and we may expect visitors from other areas in the Maritimes who will be arriving by car and may not be used to finding prime parking spots in the core. If parking is too much of a nightmare for them, they might not return to use our facility in the future.

There may be abundant surface parking downtown, but most of it (80% at least) is inaccessible, bootable private parking for downtown employees. If you remove these leased monthly spots from the equation, there actually could be a potential shortage of parking in the downtown core for a major venue such as this.

I think it's time for a developer to step forward and consider a major enclosed parking garage in downtown Moncton. Thoughts anyone???

[mctnguy]

It's a no-brainer and guaranteed to make money, I'd think.

I still like the idea of having parking structures built across the tracks and connected to the arena via pedway or underground tunnel.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I think it's time for a developer to step forward and consider a major enclosed parking garage in downtown Moncton. Thoughts anyone???

[Feneant]

So here is my question on this vote... none of these renders show a single spot for parking. Are they expecting people to be parking at the market, the Delta, City Hall and as far as the mall and have to walk to the new arena? I know that when the government building across the street was full, new employees had a hard time finding parking (most of it paid parking of course)- there is no way that general area can accommodate parking for the 4000-5000 cars coming to a sold out event.

Oops- I see MonctonRad talks about it 2 posts above- I got tired of reading about the center so skipped ahead, haha. And btw, I call BS on that '3000 spots within 10 minutes', they are probably counting 1234 Main St, Sobey's, Heritage Court and wherever other parking you can park in and get booted to that count. Before they added parking to Main St. it used to be hard to find a spot to go eat at the Vien Dong on weekends!

[L'homard]

When you go to Boston Gardens, to the Bell Centre, to a Maple Laffs (sorry couldn't resist) game, you don't park at the rink.
I know this isn't Boston, Montreal or Toronto, but anyway.
I totally agree the parking question is going to be a hard sell but it is time to address the fact that this rink will have very little, if any parking, and certainly no free parking, I would think.
And good luck making money with a parking garage in a city where I can park my car for a month in the heart of downtown for a princely $2 per day. Parking garages cost about $25,000 PER PARKING SPOT to build. Good luck recouping that investment!
Now the challenge is to get people to change how they think about parking at hockey games, concerts, etc.... because this reality is going to hit most people fast, and hard.

[David_99]

Originally Posted by L'homard

Now the challenge is to get people to change how they think about parking at hockey games, concerts, etc.... because this reality is going to hit most people fast, and hard.

I was thinking about this and thought about how much time we spend complaining that Moncton isn't urban enough. We're all suburbs with on real "downtown" like the bigger cities. We're so dependant on our cars and expect to be able to go from our driveway to the nearest parking spot infront of our destination. IMO, I think this is just what this community needs. A good kick in the pants. I lived in Vancouver for a year and did not see one person over weight. Not. One. Everybody walked everywhere. If you lived in the suburbs, you'd walk several blocks to the bus stop, take transit downtown, then walk several more blocks to your work. At lunch, you walk a few more blocks to your favourite restaurant and back. No problem. Yes they don't have the winters we do, but we don't have the 4 months of torrential downpours they do.

I live off Hennessey and drive to the new Elmwood Sobeys. My Vancouver self would kick my ass knowing I did that. I used to walk 45mins to and from my Vancouver apartment, bags in hand. I was in the best shape of my life. Legs like tree trunks. Now I finding walking to the community mail box is a chore... There's going to be some growing pains, sure, but I think it'll be good for the community in the long run.

[Taeolas]

Yeah they had a 10 minute section during the presentation talking about parking.

There they outlined having 3000 parking spots available within a 10 minute walk. How Halifax and Saint John and various Ontario communities of similar sizes don't have parking on site. And how by having dispersed parking, it removes a choke point and encourages people to service downtown businesses before and after the events. There was briefly talk about how some events may include a parking pass (assumably to the private lots mentioned above) as part of the event ticket as well.