Edmonton city council votes to move ahead with Northlands multiplex proposal

Edmonton city council voted unanimously to move ahead with a new sportsplex proposal for the Coliseum arena butdeferred repayment of a $48-million Northlands'debt by up to two years.

While council is keen to move ahead with plans to redevelop the Northlands siteas quickly as possible, several councillors expressed concernthe study required to do thatshouldn't be rushed.

"I also don't want this to take threebloody years," said Mayor Don Iveson."I think there's a window right now. I just don't want to lose it."

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The city expects it will cost $102 million to renovate the former Rexall Place into a two-storey sports multiplex.

In the next several months, city staff will speak with hockey and other sports groups to decide what kind of activities the multiplex could support. Meetings will also be held withdevelopers who might be interested in becoming partnerson the project.

Those conversations will inform the conceptual design elements for the new facility. The budget will be debated in the spring.

The Oilers Entertainment Group also needs to sign-off on the idea before it can move ahead. The Oilers have the right to veto any sports or entertainment-oriented redevelopment at the Coliseum as part of the deal it struck with city council for the new downtown arena.

Iveson said he's optimistic the Oilers will allow it.

"In the end, if they said that they don't support this, they would have to take responsibility because I really don't think we have many other options other than some kind of amateur sport and at least partially hockey-centred repurpose," Iveson said.

Decision buys time for Northlands

As for other elements of Northlands' $230-million future plan, council ordered city staff to come up with a concept for the entire area before any decisions are made about aproposed festival site, a potential hotel, private development, or renovations to Hall D of the Expo Centre.

"This is not a small body of work," said city manager Linda Cochrane.

Northlands CEO Tim Reid said council's decision buys Northlands the time it needs to find its footing whenthe new Rogers Place arena opens downtown this month.

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He said the new arena is expected to siphon $9.2 millionworth of business away from Northlands.

The city's decision to defer repayment of Northlands' $48-million loan incurred to pay for renovations to the Expo Centrewill help the organization catch its breath once the new facility opens this month.

"What we've needed all along has been time," Reidsaid.

Reid said council's decision will likely protect K-Days, at least for another couple of years.

Expo Centre and Shaw likely to merge

Council also asked city staff to investigate options to bring Edmonton's two convention centres, the Expo Centre and Shaw Convention Centre,under the same management.

Iveson said he's not picky about who would manage the two centres be it Northlands, the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation or a new agency as long as businessis boosted.

"I'm not just going to pump more money into Northlands to support the convention centre if we haven't addressed operational efficiencies and, more importantly, sales synergies between the two organizations," Iveson said.

He said both convention centres are "chasing the same high school grad ceremonies" when they should be attracting major trade shows to the city.

City staff will report back to council with options for the multiplex and the convention centres early in 2017.