Report on renovating Rexall Place estimates cost at under $200 million

 Northlands has released a report that concludes rebuilding Rexall Place from the ice up can be done, but it would be a slow and expensive process, although not as expensive as a new arena.

The report, which can be found below in its entirety, has been in councilors’ hands for a while, but today was released to the public Friday. The document say renovating Rexall Place would cost a little less than $200 million to bring it up to current NHL standards. That is in in 2010 dollars.

The initial report in 2008 dollars suggested the cost would be between $225 and $250 million. It says renovations would have to take place over 3 to 4 years because it would have to be done during the offseason. The building would have to be shut down between June and August to accommodate the renovation work. The report doesn’t delve into who would pay for the renovations.

Another important factor is whether renovations are even an option, as the Katz Group has indicated it doesn’t want to be partners with Northlands, nor does it want the Oilers to play in Rexall Place any longer than they have to.

But there are still two unresolved issues in Katz Group’s proposed arena project: $100 million dollars missing from the funding plan, and the non-compete clause. The clause would prevent Northlands from being able to host any concerts, which it would count on to keep its venue afloat.

According to the funding framework suggested for the downtown arena proposal, the total government contribution would add up to $225 million. $125 million would be paid by users through a ticket tax, and the remaining amount would be put up by the Katz group.

While the Katz Group has agreed to commit $100 million to the project, it has also suggested it will be giving up revenue because of the proposed ticket tax.

Mayor Stephen Mandel does not see it that way, though. “They have no right anywhere, in any books, at any time, to make the assumption that a ticket tax is their money. It’s not, It’s the city’s.” he said. “If it is, then I’m surprised they wouldn’t have the GST as part of their revenue.”

And when it comes to getting the missing $100 million from the province, City Council can access funding from the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, but this kind of one-off request is not guaranteed to get fulfilled.

“As Cabinet normally does, we will contextualize the request against all other municipalities requests and our provincial priorities,” said local MLA and Minister of Employment and Immigration, Thomas Lukaszuk. “So, no committment. And I hope nobody is counting on those dollars as if they were in the bank, because they are definitely not.”

With these unanswered questions, only time will tell if the arena deal comes together before the October 31st deadline imposed by the Katz Group.

“I think there’s some real issues,” said Mandel.”Whether we can bridge them, I don’t know.”

With files from Vinesh Pratap, Global News.
Rexall Renovation Study