EDMONTON – The Downtown Vibrancy Coalition was launched Monday, to encourage all parties involved in the arena and downtown revitalization project to move forward with the proposed development.
“We are here today to launch a new coalition with a message to city council, the Redford government, to the Katz Group, to get this done for the sake of our downtown, and for our city, which we love so much,” said Simon O’Byrne, spokesperson for the coalition.
“Today, we launch a coalition of support to something that’s too often diminished to just an arena for millionaire hockey players. It is much more than that,” he stressed.
“The arena, however, is the catalyst of approximately $3 billion of potential development downtown; hotels, restaurants, pubs, parks, promenades, strolling sidewalks, a community rink, an LRT link, not to mention an ambitious makeover of Jasper Avenue to create a main street befitting Alberta’s capital city.”
O’Byrne says the coalition is made up of Edmonton volunteers from all walks of life, who subscribe to the motto “as goes our downtown, so goes our city.”
The group is encouraging all Edmontonians who support the downtown revitalization project to contact their local and provincial officials, as well as the Katz Group, to express their position by calling 311 or visiting yetdt.com.
“Our request to you, if you support our vision for a dynamic, vibrant downtown, is to then please join us, contact your city councillors, contact your MLA, contact the Katz Gorup and let them know that you believe in the downtown and you want it to go from good to great,” O’Byrne explains.
The downtown arena project has been in the works for years and has seen its share of drama.
After much deliberation, a funding framework was put into place October 2011.
September 2012, city council refused the Katz Group’s request for additional public funding for the arena. Discussions halted.
December 2012, council voted to resume negotiations with the Katz Group.
By the end of January 2013, a new framework for the $480 million arena was approved by council, but $100 million was still missing.
March’s provincial budget complicated the funding issue, since there was no money put aside for the arena project. Premier Alison Redford reiterated numerous times that there would be no provincial funding directly funneled into the arena project.
In April, to fill part of the funding gap, councillors voted to borrow $45 million against expected future Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding. $55 million still needs to be filled.
On May 8, councillors are scheduled to vote on a number of “catalyst projects” to be funded from a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL), which would use property taxes from downtown growth.
With the arena and other downtown projects back on council’s calendar for Wednesday, is the group’s push too little, too late?
“I certainly hope not,” said Lindsay Dodd, chair of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. “It all looked like the deal was going forward that we had parties at the table that were going to make this happen, and in the last week or two, seems to have come unraveled. All we’re asking is that the parties get back to the table, use some innovative thinking, and get the deal done.”
Members of the coalition believe the local business community is already doing its part to support downtown development. Now, it wants to see the city and the province do their part.
“During the past decade, our city government has invested $10.6 billion towards capital projects in areas outside of our downtown, but only $173 million in the downtown,” added Dodd.
He said the numbers, taken from the city’s capital budget, are “staggering in the magnitude of their imbalance.”
“There is a bigger picture to consider here… the arena is a catalyst project. If it is not funded, the city’s revitalization projects will stall. Without it, $2 billion in additional development proposed for the adjacent entertainment district will disappear.”
“Businesses are already investing in the downtown,” explained O’Byrne. “They’re buying up land, they’re driving up real estate under the hope and aspiration that this is going to happen, so people are putting their money where their mouth is.”
“The tax base for the downtown is doing the heavy lifting on paying for this.”
Other supporters say the clock is ticking on the window of opportunity for this project, in a number of ways.
“Every year you wait, it costs you more and more to get the same thing, so let’s get going,” said Bob Walker, vice president of Ledcor Construction.
“We’re gauging these numbers…. Even at a five per cent increase in escalation… it’s costing you another $30 million a year.”
While Walker is not directly involved in the arena project, he’s a big supporter of seeing it come to fruition.
“At the end of the day, we need this project. It is so important to downtown, as was the Art Gallery, as was City hall, as was the Royal Alberta Museum. We’ve got to look at these projects as part of the quality of life to attract people to come and work in this province. This is the place to be in the next ten years.”
The coalition wants to communicate to all three parties – and Edmontonians – the impact this project would have on the city.
“This is not about an arena,” added O’Byrne. “This is about a $3 billion investment in the downtown after a decade of almost no investment.”
“This transformational downtown revitalization mega project is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Allowing this to fail would be an utter travesty.”
With files from Vinesh Pratap
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