With the location of Greater Sudbury's new arena/events centre now decided, city staff is moving ahead with the next steps to get the $80 million to $100 million project off the ground.
With a goal of having the facility completed by 2021, the first step is the city taking ownership of 23 acres of land on The Kingsway, which owner Dario Zulich has agreed to transfer to the city for a nominal fee.
The next step is to get the zoning for the land in line with what they want to build. Technically, the land doesn't need to be rezoned. Currently the property has three zones: M1-1, which is business industrial; M2, which is light industrial; and M3, which is heavy industrial.
Marie Edsall, communications manager at the city, said the current zoning needs to be amended, not changed.
"It would still be zoned M1-1, but it would be amended to include that other use,” Edsall said. “Right now it doesn't currently allow for an arena/events centre."
Once that is done, residents can object to the zoning amendment within 20 days of the decision. But they must have objected before the decision was made, either at the public hearing or in writing, and they must provide the reasons for their objections.
According to planning rules, “the appeal can be filed by either the applicant, a person or public body who, before the bylaw was passed, made oral submissions at a public meeting or written submissions to council, or the minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.”
Depending on the complexity of the appeal, if there is one, it can be resolved within a few months or it could take years.
In tandem with the zoning process, the city will issue an RFP for venue operator within a month or two. The goal is to have the operator in place as soon as possible so they can agree to a term sheet with the Sudbury Wolves, a document that will be the basis for a new long-term lease.
After the zoning issues are dealt with, the RFP to pick the group that will design and build the arena will be issued. Three companies already pre-qualified to bid on the work and only they can submit bids: EllisDon Corp. (which built the Rogers Centre), PCL Constructors Canada Inc. (which is part of the group building the North Bay Regional Health Centre, a $551 million project), and Ball/Tesc Construction Inc.
That is a joint bid with Ball Construction, the design and build team that built the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, and Tesc Construction, a local company headed by Zulich that provided the steel for the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
Once all that is complete, construction can begin and it's expected to last about three years. The goal is to begin construction next year, and to open in 2021.
