I am sure that even once construction has begun, there will still be some people in Sudbury who will continue to spread misinformation about the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED) in an attempt to stop the project.
I want to take this opportunity to provide the real truth about the KED so that some of the rumours that are being spread in the community can finally be put to rest.
It all started on June 27, 2017, when city council decided by a vote of 10-2 to approve the location of our new arena/event centre on the Kingsway property.
Following that momentous decision, an agreement was made by the city, Gateway Casinos, a hotel investment group and the land owner/developer, Dario Zulich, to form a collaborative partnership to construct what has become known as the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED). In April 2018, city council approved the required amendments to the Official Plan and the zoning bylaws in order to enable the casino and municipal arena to be built on the selected parcel of land.
There was an election in October 2018. One of the major issues in the election was the KED. Many candidates ran on a platform that they were against the KED. All 11 incumbents who ran for re-election were returned to office during that election. This was a clear vote of confidence in the decisions that were made by city council with respect to the location of the new arena/event centre.
Opponents of the city decision filed an application with the Superior Court of Justice, claiming city councillors were biased and acted in bad faith when passing the bylaws. Justice Ellies listened to all of the applicant's arguments and concluded that there was no truth to the accusations.
At the same time, 12 appeals were filed with the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). All of the appeals were judged to be without merit and the tribunal ruled that city council made the decisions in compliance with all existing legislation.
That brings us to where we are today.
I can say, without any doubt, that all of the parties involved in this project are totally committed to the original plans and have indeed started to meet to put together a critical path to which they can all agree for moving forward. That plan will be presented in more detail to city council on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021.
The city will be issuing an RFP for the design/build within the next couple of months. It is going to take about eight months to get those proposals back, evaluate them, and then award the contract to the successful bidder.
In the meantime, final engineering work will be done this spring and summer that will be needed for the site preparation of the property. It is expected that blasting can begin some time before the end of 2021. At the same time, the road construction and installation of infrastructure must begin so that the property can be serviced during the actual construction phase.
All parties — and I repeat — all parties have always been and are still in agreement with this preparation strategy. All parties — and I repeat again — all parties, have signed a cost-sharing agreement that established their share of the costs of the site preparation. And, despite what you may have heard from any members of the public, including some councillors, all parties, including the hotel and the casino are committed to paying their share of those costs.
When all of this preparation is completed, the parties will then make a final decision on their preferred opening date and then work backwards to ensure that construction of all three elements can be completed at the same time. It was always the intent that they all be ready to open together. Nothing has changed. They are still in agreement with this plan.
The arena/event centre is expected to take 24 months to build. The casino and the hotel will each take about 18 months to build.
Therefore, at this time, it appears as if all of the parties will be able to follow a path that should see the construction of the arena begin some time in the spring of 2022 so that it can be completed by the summer of 2024.
That means construction on the casino and the hotel can begin six months later, in the fall of 2022, so that the construction of all three elements of the KED can be completed at the same time and benefit further from this collaborated construction timeline.
To conclude, let me dispel some mistruths that are being spread in the community.
First of all, Gateway Casinos is not in any more financial trouble than any other company in Ontario currently operating in the gaming, entertainment and restaurant business. They, as well as other casino operations, are closed, pending the lifting of pandemic restrictions on their industry. They have access to a $200-million loan they may use if necessary to help with start-up costs of their existing operations when the time is right.
It is completely understandable that at this point in the pandemic, their focus is on getting their existing operations back up and running.
Gateway obviously can’t focus much of their finances on new project start-ups until they get their existing sites back up and running.
As for their part in the KED, when the time comes to begin their part of the construction, likely in the fall of 2022, the capital funding will be available. That is almost two years away and the pandemic will have already waned significantly by then.
The KED is very much part of their Ontario plan, so they are not going anywhere. There will be a casino built as part of the KED.
Finally, despite what you are hearing from some sources in the public, there is a hotel going up as part of the KED. This is a very competitive industry and the hotel investors will take their time to determine which hotel franchise will work best with this facility. They are not going to disclose this information until it makes business sense to do so.
They are two years away from starting construction of the hotel, so they will make announcements about the name when the time is right. The hotel investors have the financing and have signed the cost — sharing agreement, so there will be a hotel. What name the hotel will carry is not important at this time.
The city has already borrowed $100 million, which will be used to finance the building of the arena/event centre. We have made the decisions and successfully defended all challenges to that decision.
This is going to happen and it will create significant commercial development on the 170-acre property; it will create hundreds of new jobs; and the economic spinoff will be immense for multiple sectors and industries in the city.
This has always been about more than an arena. It is an investment in the future of the City of Greater Sudbury and I am confident that the KED will be everything that we expected.
We can all look forward to the grand opening of the KED, most likely in the summer of 2024, which will be a perfect time to officially launch the post-pandemic era in the City of Greater Sudbury. That is the real truth about the KED!
Robert Kirwan is the Greater Sudbury city council representative for Ward 5.
