While welcoming news city council is ready to back four major projects they say have “transformational” potential for Greater Sudbury, the people behind some of those plans would like the process to move more quickly.
Meeting on April 26, councillors voted to back a new library/art gallery, a Place des Arts, a new arena/events centre and the Synergy Centre. But where the first two would rely heavily on public money, the events centre and the Synergy Centre have business plans that could need updating as time passes.
"Investors and banks and market opportunities don't stick around forever,” said the Synergy Centre's Paul Finley. “Sudbury needs to realize that we need to capture the opportunities that the world is bringing to us and make the most of them.
"We don't want to be sitting here in two, three, four years talking about it still. So with that said, we're looking forward to working with the city to see how we can capitalize on this opportunity and move it forward with haste."
Finley was grateful that a year after going public with the plan, council has recognized its merits.
"We are pleasantly surprised," he said. “We laud council for having the vision to see that this project is worthy of being chosen as a potential community asset.”
Using “transformation technology” in use in 300 buildings in the world (including Canada), the Synergy Centre is a $64-million facility that can transform to meet the needs of individual events.
The 127,000 square-foot building could accommodate major conventions, small- to medium-sized concerts, art shows and other events. It would be economically sustainable, its backers say, because all the diverse events could be held in one location, ensuring it would be booked for much of the year.
“Do we see it moving forward? I don't see how it can not move forward,” Finley said. “It's probably one of the most financially and, business-wise, viable project this community could want. And from a social and cultural standpoint, it is needed badly."
Andrew Dale is with the True North Strong Events Centre proposal, a $60-million sports and entertainment complex that would be built at the Jack Nicholas Business and Innovation Park on The Kingsway, east of Third Avenue.
Dale said his group would like to see the city issue an RFP for an arena/events centre as soon as possible.
"Because that moves the bar forward, faster," he said. "We're about timing, we're about urgency around the timing of federal funding and opportunities that our community needs to get ready for. I think we're in that space where we're excited to be part of that moving forward."
The April 26 meeting was a major step forward, Dale said, because councillors have confirmed that building an events centre is a priority. There's a rival proposal from another group that would be built in the South End, and there are efforts behind the scenes to keep the arena downtown.
Dale said they're anxious to get to the RFP so everyone can judge the merits of what's on the table in a transparent process.
"We need to start moving this process forward so that we're prepared for those opportunities so that we, as a community, can take advantage of it at the federal level and the provincial level,” he said. “We've talked at length for the last couple of months, since our first presentation, about how an events centre can touch most, if not all, community stakeholders and users.
"At the end of the day, we're excited about this process moving forward, and having it move as quickly as possible."
While it's understandable some proponents want to move quickly, Mayor Brian Bigger said it's key for council and staff to follow a responsible process.
"We're looking now for more detailed information, a more intense process of collecting information," Bigger said. "This will give us a much clearer idea of the economic value that staff believes are inherent in these projects, as well as the improvement to our community."
The next step is having city staff provide a higher-level analysis of each project. For the arena/events centre, he said a consultant would be hired to help the city prepare the RFP.
"Part of the role of that consultant would help us in defining the terms of reference and defining that RFP that we're looking for," Bigger said. “We see a vision for our city to move all four of these projects forward. What we need is more details.
“Once we see more details about these projects — what the costs are, our ability to fund it, support, perhaps, from other levels of government, different ways of funding the projects — all of the details that we'll get into through next steps."
The reports from staff will identify what those next steps are, he said. Council will then decide on what action to take based on those recommendations.
"We're going to follow a structured process,” Bigger said.
Finley said despite the delays, he and his group are pleased to receive a signal from the city that they believe in what they are trying to accomplish.
"We're looking forward to the next little while,” he said. “It's been frustrating and testy over the last two years, quite frankly. We hope that we'll be able to, with staff and council's support, now start to move this project forward."
