The head of the group tasked with renovating FirstOntario Centre says the consortium is pledging to do a better job of communicating with tenants after news that some of Hamilton’s major sports teams will need to find a new home for the better part of two seasons.
PJ Mercanti, CEO of Carmen’s Group and president of the Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG), says the “expanded scope” of the renovation, which entails an overall larger-scale development, will make it “impossible” for the tenants to play through it.
Owner of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, Michael Andlauer, one of those tenants, expressed his surprise in a letter to the team’s fans on the weekend when he was told renovations meant his team would need to find a new home for the 2023-24 season and much of the 2024-25 season.
He insisted he was previously told renovations would occur in a manner that would allow hockey to continue.
“I’m prepared to acknowledge … that we should have done a better job … in communicating this to the teams and maintaining more frequent communications with them in a more formal way,” Mercanti told 900 CHML’s Hamilton Today.
“So moving forward, we’re committed to engaging with those more frequent touch points.”
Andlauer told Global News he got the “bombshell” news during a reach out to Mercanti and the group to address venue scheduling via a Zoom call on Friday.
He said discussions with HUPEG in 2020, which included consultations with architects, suggested schedules would be affected “either at the beginning or at the end of the season” but would not impact the Bulldogs to the tune of being out for two years.
“Communications kind of slowed down towards … mid 2021 and then I didn’t hear much of anything,” Andlauer said.
“(I) asked for updates once in a while and I’d get an update … but more vague.”
Andlauer suggests the group’s intention with the Bulldogs was to “work together as partners” financially, however, he said he “wasn’t ready to do that” and opted to simply continue his connections with the arena as a tenant.
As of Tuesday, Andlauer said he’d still heard little of what changes have been made from the original venue design.
“I haven’t heard anything about any of this … even if … there’s going to be an ice plant in the new renovation or it’s going to be strictly an entertainment venue. … There’s nothing,” said Andlauer.
Mercanti told Global News that increases in the renovation budget and the complexity of the renovation were at the forefront of conversations that ultimately led to architects and construction partners suggesting a staggered renovation was not recommended for “logistical, physical reasons.”
In July, Jasper Kujavsky, project director and a partner of HUPEG, told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton that a start date for FirstOntario’s tenants was likely to change with the alterations to make a more elaborate venue.
He said a potential new timeline for the start of development would be June or July next year with the hope of reopening by the fall of 2024.
“So it was a scheduling issue and a staging issue that was largely affected by the scope of the project which is now becoming much more public,” Kujavsky said.
“It’s significantly larger than what was originally agreed to in the deal we signed with the city.”
After Hamilton’s city council gave formal approval for a partnership with HUPEG in the spring of 2021, executives announced a $500 million spend on a mixed-use development including an affordable housing project and a $50-million restoration of FirstOntario Centre.
However, the plan changed in the summer of 2022 with cost revisions anticipating a development ranging between $ 80 million to $ 200 million when sports magnate Tim Leiweke and his Oak View Group became involved.
New additions include a completely reimagined facade with a massive concourse on the ground floor stretching around the arena instead of the stairs now seen when entering the building, according to Kujavsky.
READ MORE: Hamilton agrees to modernization deal for downtown entertainment venues near FirstOntario Centre
Mercanti said HUPEG is committed to improving communication, revealing a “visioning exercise” that is expected to engage the community on what the renovated arena means and how it will affect the district.
A development website is also expected to launch soon as a “mechanism for which feedback could be provided” to HUPEG.
“We’re ready to double down on our communication efforts with the teams, with all stakeholders and with the public at large,” Mercanti said.
“We’re going to be all ears as it relates to all this stuff.”
Andlauer believes the city has to take “a bit of the responsibility” in making sure communication with HUPEG and the community is “consistent.”