Consultants: cost of new Sudbury Arena would be $55M-$65M

Greater Sudbury city council got some ballpark figures Tuesday on how much it would cost to renovate or replace Sudbury Arena.

Consultants Mike Renaud, director of special projects for consultant CBRE, and Robert Allen, of MacLennan Jaunkalns, Miller Architechts, gave councillors an overview of three options: retrofitting the existing rink to address the most glaring problems; a major refurbishing that would replace almost everything inside; and, building a totally new facility.

At the low end of the scale would be a 10-year, $12-million retrofit that would address the most pressing needs, including making the building wheelchair accessible, upgrading washrooms, a modern dehumidifier system and docking and loading improvements needed for arena events.

A major refurbishment – basically gutting the arena and rebuilding it – would cost about $50 million and take five years to complete. It would expand the arena, adding 68,500 square feet to the facility, 1,400 new seats and 16 new luxury boxes.

A new arena would cost about $65 million, and take about three years to complete. Each option comes with a level of risk, with the $50-million rebuild cited as the most risky, because of the possibility they would find unanticipated problems with the existing arena, which was built in 1951.

Renaud stressed that the dollar figures are only estimates based on current industry prices.

“It's not a bid price or anything like that,” he said.

The consultants were hired last year after the city received 14 expressions of interest from companies interested in the project, ranging from one bid to just provide the seating to complete proposals to build the entire facility.

While the original plan was to hire a firm to evaluate the proposals, it was expanded to examine the renovation and rebuilding options.

“If this council doesn't want to replace the arena, now you have information” about the costs of other options, said CAO Doug Nadorozny.
Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti said convincing the public to spend big money just for an OHL rink would never fly, since most Sudburians don't go to watch the games.

“It has to be presented as a multi-purpose facility,” Signoretti said.
He also questioned the pricetag, noting that the cost of building the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie was half of what was being proposed.
“Sault Ste. Marie did it for $25 million.”

Renaud said the Essar centre was built more than a decade ago, and costs have increased substantially. While seats in the Sault facility cost about $5,000 each to build, prices have risen to about $9,000 a seat. And a recent rebuild of the arena in St. Catharines cost about $9,500 a seat.

And, he said, the purpose of their study was to give councillors an idea of how much each option would cost, not to promote one approach or another.

“This is for information,” Renaud said. “This is for order of magnitude.”

Next step would be to do a business case, he said, and to decide which approach they want to take.