Saskatoon Construction II

[mitchellk12]

Originally Posted by dsmmace

I am not aware North Prairie announced anything about their hotel partner, unless you are thinking of the River Landing ALT Hotel project?

They havent announced no partner yet. The lady from north prarie i spoke with just told me theres an ' announcement' in march thats coming for city centre towers. No shovels or partners yet.....

Hopefully soon.....our skyline is pretty gloomy. If we could get the 5 towers combined through parcel y and north prarie itll look great.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Cool to see the school webcams! But man, are these ever bland, cookie cutter, soul-crushing designs. Not that I was expecting much with this mass-produced P3 model.

Agree. The last 2 schools built in Regina, Arcola and Douglas were beautiful but ridiculously expensive and took 3 years to build.

[Toontone]

Just wondering, does anyone here know what the new (or rather renovated) building on the corner of 25th street and 1st ave. is? I see it is currently under construction.

[Echoes]

Does anyone know what's going on with the building on 2nd Ave housing the Heights on the 2nd floor and the future Oak & Iron (formerly Bottega) on the main floor?

Last week I walked by and there was an order from a City inspector posted citing unsafe conditions and evacuation of the building until further notice.

The handling of the new establishments there has been an absolute joke. Bottega was so much squandered potential. I've never been sure when or if the Heights was even open. This Oak & Iron rebrand has been a long time coming with no detail on what it's all about. And now this order.

I'm still glad the Olympia is gone, but man, this place could be so much more. Renovating the 2nd floor into a lounge was great. Adding that street level garage door for a sidewalk patio was great. But why are the people behind this so clearly incompetent? Where are they getting there financial backing to be in this industry?!

[po9u]

New walkingsaskatoon post on Kelsey/Woodlawn LAP and the move of part of the proposed North Downtown rail trail to a parking lot:

http://walkingsaskatoon.org/2016/02/21/the-best-laid-plans/

If anyone is interested in writing something for the site, let me know. A piece on 8th Street urban design would be really nice as described above.

[nook]

Originally Posted by po9u

New walkingsaskatoon post on Kelsey/Woodlawn LAP and the move of part of the proposed North Downtown rail trail to a parking lot:

http://walkingsaskatoon.org/2016/02/21/the-best-laid-plans/

If anyone is interested in writing something for the site, let me know. A piece on 8th Street urban design would be really nice as described above.

And when we finally get the rail yards out of the city, we could keep the bridge park.

[Echoes]

Here are renderings of Luthercare Village being built by Meridian in Stonebridge.





Source

Note that there will be some ground floor commercial. I must say, this is a rather large and impressive development for a suburb. I drove through the area over the weekend and it has quite a presence. I recall chatting with a Stonebridge resident a few months ago who complained that it was much too tall for the neighbourhood. Good grief.

[prairieguy]

SaskTel Centre

The professional lacrosse team, The Rush, that use the SaskTel Centre as their home posted an article that "reviewed" the SaskTel centre and the experience by a magazine called Stadium Journey. Although it does specifically discuss the lacrosse experience at times, it also gives a general review of the arena. Not as bad as I was anticipating, although the reviewer does hit the usual deficiencies that we all know about: long line ups at concessions; long line ups at washrooms; crowded concourse areas; remote location. Surprisingly, he did not find traffic as bad as most of us complain about! haha

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/sasktel-centre-s2761

However, I think if the National Lacrosse League can establish itself as a viable professional team in Saskatoon that can draw 10,000 fans to a game, it is time to start the conversation on a new more centrally located venue. Think of the opportunity for 10,000 fans either before or after the game in terms of restaurants, pubs, shopping, etc. There is no way Saskatoon is benefiting from this economic spin-off with the SaskTel Centre located "out of town".

[dac717]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

SaskTel Centre

The professional lacrosse team, The Rush, that use the SaskTel Centre as their home posted an article that "reviewed" the SaskTel centre and the experience by a magazine called Stadium Journey. Although it does specifically discuss the lacrosse experience at times, it also gives a general review of the arena. Not as bad as I was anticipating, although the reviewer does hit the usual deficiencies that we all know about: long line ups at concessions; long line ups at washrooms; crowded concourse areas; remote location. Surprisingly, he did not find traffic as bad as most of us complain about! haha

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/sasktel-centre-s2761

However, I think if the National Lacrosse League can establish itself as a viable professional team in Saskatoon that can draw 10,000 fans to a game, it is time to start the conversation on a new more centrally located venue. Think of the opportunity for 10,000 fans either before or after the game in terms of restaurants, pubs, shopping, etc. There is no way Saskatoon is benefiting from this economic spin-off with the SaskTel Centre located "out of town".

Agreed. It is brutal that SaskTel Centre is where it is. Not to mention the casino!!

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

SaskTel Centre

The professional lacrosse team, The Rush, that use the SaskTel Centre as their home posted an article that "reviewed" the SaskTel centre and the experience by a magazine called Stadium Journey. Although it does specifically discuss the lacrosse experience at times, it also gives a general review of the arena. Not as bad as I was anticipating, although the reviewer does hit the usual deficiencies that we all know about: long line ups at concessions; long line ups at washrooms; crowded concourse areas; remote location. Surprisingly, he did not find traffic as bad as most of us complain about! haha

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/sasktel-centre-s2761

However, I think if the National Lacrosse League can establish itself as a viable professional team in Saskatoon that can draw 10,000 fans to a game, it is time to start the conversation on a new more centrally located venue. Think of the opportunity for 10,000 fans either before or after the game in terms of restaurants, pubs, shopping, etc. There is no way Saskatoon is benefiting from this economic spin-off with the SaskTel Centre located "out of town".

I am constantly amazed that the vast majority of stadiums cannot actually accommodate their nameplate capacity when it comes to concessions, concourses and washrooms. Who designs these places anyway?

[Hatched]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

SaskTel Centre

The professional lacrosse team, The Rush, that use the SaskTel Centre as their home posted an article that "reviewed" the SaskTel centre and the experience by a magazine called Stadium Journey. Although it does specifically discuss the lacrosse experience at times, it also gives a general review of the arena. Not as bad as I was anticipating, although the reviewer does hit the usual deficiencies that we all know about: long line ups at concessions; long line ups at washrooms; crowded concourse areas; remote location. Surprisingly, he did not find traffic as bad as most of us complain about! haha

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/sasktel-centre-s2761

However, I think if the National Lacrosse League can establish itself as a viable professional team in Saskatoon that can draw 10,000 fans to a game, it is time to start the conversation on a new more centrally located venue. Think of the opportunity for 10,000 fans either before or after the game in terms of restaurants, pubs, shopping, etc. There is no way Saskatoon is benefiting from this economic spin-off with the SaskTel Centre located "out of town".

Agreed. Time to get rid of Toys R Us and put a new arena in that empty lot.

[prairieguy]

I would be in favour of loosing one of our planned bridges and re-alocate towards a downtown arena (I know that can't be done....just pie in the skying). I think another potential location downtown would be the north Midtown Plaza surface lot. Could connect to TCUP and there would be 2 decent hotels on either side of it (Hilton and Holiday Inn) and access to existing underground parkade. Think of what our downtown could evolve into with all those people coming downtown on a regular basis and if it was tied into TCUP, might allow Saskatoon to go after larger international conventions.

Now we just need someone with super deep pockets, as this would never ever happen with government money! Regina took all of that for the new football stadium.

[Echoes]

Shots fired!

[SaskScraper]

Originally Posted by prairieguy
SaskTel Centre

The professional lacrosse team, The Rush, that use the SaskTel Centre as their home posted an article that "reviewed" the SaskTel centre and the experience by a magazine called Stadium Journey. Although it does specifically discuss the lacrosse experience at times, it also gives a general review of the arena. Not as bad as I was anticipating, although the reviewer does hit the usual deficiencies that we all know about: long line ups at concessions; long line ups at washrooms; crowded concourse areas; remote location. Surprisingly, he did not find traffic as bad as most of us complain about! haha

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiu...l-centre-s2761

However, I think if the National Lacrosse League can establish itself as a viable professional team in Saskatoon that can draw 10,000 fans to a game, it is time to start the conversation on a new more centrally located venue. Think of the opportunity for 10,000 fans either before or after the game in terms of restaurants, pubs, shopping, etc. There is no way Saskatoon is benefiting from this economic spin-off with the SaskTel Centre located "out of town".

Originally Posted by Stormer

I am constantly amazed that the vast majority of stadiums cannot actually accommodate their nameplate capacity when it comes to concessions, concourses and washrooms. Who designs these places anyway?

I'm amazed as well that SaskTel Centre was built where it was and without the proper facilities. Jim Flannery, Stadium Journey Regional Correspondent in the article above hits all the major problems. Isolated location, bottlenecks for entering the parking. Not enough men's washrooms, they are located in only 3 of the 4 corners of the building. Not enough concessions & not very efficient. The second floor concourse under-utilized, and the low ceiling with press box and tv monitors blocking views and having even more trouble seeing if people stand up from their seats through entire concert performances especially if in upper deck.

Some of these problems can be solved by adding more men's washrooms and concessions, probably best by utilizing the second floor concourse more. The City of Saskatoon failed to take the opportunity to add a second lane to highway 16 overpass over highway 11 last year while they were doing construction there but if at least having bus transit enter directly to Sasktel Centre by-passing the maze past Husky stations and motels it could help cut down on congestion before and after events.



I've stopped going to events at Sasktel Center because of washroom problems, traffic congestion and bad sight lines from upper deck seats at concerts with people standing. But if even some of these problems were solved I'd think about coming back to go to events there.

[Dalreg]

Stuck with this arena for at least another 25 years so only one option. Live with it...

[EpicPonyTime]

The last round of upgrades demonstrates how far a few million can go in that arena. The second level concourse and bathrooms are the best thing they ever added to that building. It's a much better investment than calling for a downtown entertainment destination. Ideally, if the city could find thirty million to put into Sask Place it'd be a fine arena (first order of duty is to replace the seats).

[casper]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

Stuck with this arena for at least another 25 years so only one option. Live with it...

Centrally located between the city proper and the northern suburbs. As the suburbs expand out it traffic will be more evenly places.

A good comparison is Corel Centre (or what ever it is called today) in Kanata.

Speaking of the Corel Centre, at ground level and underground it has lots of conference space. I have attended one or two trade shows there over the years. I never remember going to SaskPlace for anything over than a hockey game. Does it have conference room space or exhibit space beyond the main arena space. Having that would provide additional off peek traffic and revenue to help pay for better roads, more washrooms etc.

Personally the few times I have been there (and it has been 2-3 years since I have attended a game out there) I have not found the traffic around the stadium nott bad (congested but not bad). For me the problem has been getting off the highway on to circle drive. That off ramp gets backed up and everything else backup from there. Has it changed?

[nook]

Originally Posted by Stormer

I am constantly amazed that the vast majority of stadiums cannot actually accommodate their nameplate capacity when it comes to concessions, concourses and washrooms. Who designs these places anyway?

The Sasktel Centre wasn't built to accommodate 10-15k people in the venue. Original capacity was like, 7,000 or something.

So you expand the seating but not the concourses and amenities... that's why the arena seems so inadequate with larger crowds.

[nook]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

The last round of upgrades demonstrates how far a few million can go in that arena. The second level concourse and bathrooms are the best thing they ever added to that building. It's a much better investment than calling for a downtown entertainment destination. Ideally, if the city could find thirty million to put into Sask Place it'd be a fine arena (first order of duty is to replace the seats).

Lime green and black seats!

Ha.

Sasktel Centre needs massive renos just to modernize it. I don't think that any more money will be put towards improving fan experience there.

[prairieguy]

The arena situation is just like an older home....you eventually have to make a decision:

- do you want to pump more money into renovations to extend the life?
- do you want to get out before the cost of reno's far exceeds the value, and bite the bullet to move to something new that will give you another good 30 years.

With respect to Caspers comments about traffic not being that bad....that is true for Blade games that only draw 4,000 people (same with amenities, as the arena CAN accommodate that many people). The challenge now is we have a professional team that uses the facility that is drawing in excess of 10,000 people and the arena is just not up to standards for that. Maybe investment in fan experience type things can help that (i.e. more washrooms, improved concessions, improved seats, better public transit) but it still comes down to the question...stay or start the process of planning for something new and improved?