The consultant hired to prepare the criteria for the request for proposals to build a new arena/events centre in Greater Sudbury will complete his work earlier than originally forecast.
The work is being led by Ron Bidulka, managing director with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Bidulka had a significant role in the development of the Essar Centre in Sault Ste Marie, Budweiser Centre in London and Meridian Centre in St. Catharines as examples. More recently, he's worked with the City of Thunder Bay as it tries to build an events centre.
Originally slated to be completed at the end of May, the timeline was moved to March and is now set for the Feb. 28 meeting of city council.
A staff reported headed to the Dec. 13 meeting outlines the next steps in the process: Meet with community stakeholders including members of city council; conduct a market and future needs assessment; develop location criteria; develop facility concept and cost estimates; develop capital budget and financing options; develop an operational model; and, report to city council in February.
There will be updates on the other big projects the city is working on at the Dec. 13 meeting. The next step for the Synergy Centre – the performing arts and events centre a group wants to build downtown – include reviewing current information from the group, establishing terms of reference and determine how to gather more information at the lowest cost possible. A report is due “as early as possible” in 2017.
A project manager has been contracted to head up efforts to build a new art gallery/main library, which will head up efforts to look for a location and explore funding options and a business plan. A report is due in mid-2017.
