The Downtown Sudbury BIA (business improvement area) voted overwhelmingly in favour of committing $2.2 million over 25 years to a downtown event centre.
Among those in attendance at the June 20 BIA meeting, there was only one vote in opposition to the financial commitment with regards to a downtown event centre, and voters were unanimously in favour of committing $250,000 to the Elgin Greenway project over the next 10 years.
The vote came one day after city council was presented with a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that indicated the city's downtown core offers the most immediate benefits to the community at the lowest risk with regard to location for a new arena/event centre.
Downtown Sudbury board chair Jeff MacIntyre says that the results of the report didn't come as a surprise.
"Our downtown members are really informed and I think everyone would have been stunned the Kingsway came out in front," said MacIntyre. "We have talked to pretty much every city that has one of these, and it's really hard to find people that have gone through this process that regret putting it downtown. It's fairly easy to find people that went through this and didn't put it downtown that do have regrets.
But when it comes to city council's vote (on June 27) on the matter, MacIntyre says it's a tough call to make as far as which way the vote will go.
"It's going to be tight, but I've got faith in council that they have the best long-term interest of the city in mind," he said.
"They've paid a really well-educated and well-known consultant that has come back and told them that the downtown is their best bet and I hope that they take that advice and vote downtown."
The breakdown of the finances from the BIA is over a period of 25 years, with $2.2 million going to an event centre and $250,000 going to the Elgin Greenway. With the greenway project, the BIA will commit $150,000 up front and $10,000 per year for 10 years.
Once the greenway payments have been completed, the BIA will increase their annual contributions to the event centre.
"We're doing this commitment because we know the downtown will have growth and we'll be able to recoup that money going forward without an impact to our members because we'll have a bigger pool to draw from," said MacIntyre.
