This downtown parking lot could be a contender for Saskatoon's new arena

Ask people where they think Saskatoon's new downtown arena should go and they get cagey.

Not Alan Wallace.

The former chief planner for the City of Saskatoon says the large parking lot on 22nd Street, across from the Midtown Plaza and TCU Place, ticks off a lot of boxes.

It's close to the First Avenue bus-rapid-transit line that Saskatoon city councillors approved this past Monday.

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"Otherwise you have to have a lot of surface parking," Wallace said.

And thelot's proximity to the mall, TCU Place and a convention hall makes it a suitable pillar for a planned entertainment district, Wallace added.

"You don't have to rebuild those anywhere else," he said. "The convention centreand arena can coexist and in fact complement each other and could be an amazing district and lead to a lot of other development around it."

'Avery likely candidate'

It's early days, though. The city barely just laid out a rough plan for choosing a site, which includes eventual public consultation once a shortlist of potential sites is released.

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That's why Brent Penner, the executive director of DTNYXE, the downtown business improvement district, is hesitant at this point to wade into where the arena should go.

"We don't want to jeopardize any discussions between the City of Saskatoon and private property owners. We believe the approach undertaken by the city is the right one," he said.

The Riversdale business improvement district, the NSBA (North Saskatchewan), the Greater Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, SaskTel Centre CEO Will Lofdahl, former mayor Don Atchison and former city general manager Murray Totland were all similarly non-committal when asked to cite their current arena location preference on Wednesday.

But some had heard rumblings of the 22nd Street parking lot.

Darla Lindberg, the CEO of the Greater Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, says that kind of location would be a "wise" choice.

"[It] has access to more potential tax tools for the city through property development," she said.

"There are options for businesses to locate in more locations around that particular parcel of land and develop their businesses and gain exposure to the target audience that they want coming out of a facility like a downtown arena or convention centre."

One such person tweeted:

Ryan Walker, an expert in urban planning at the University of Saskatchewan, says the parking lot is"a very likely candidate."

"There's a lot of accessibility to different areas of the city," Walker said, "and potentially as well the [former] Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) station just on the other side, on 23rd Street.

"I don't know how much area would be required precisely for [the arena]. It may be that more space than just that parking lot is needed."

Solve the car issue first, says prof

One of Walker's cohorts at the university isn't convinced that that parking lot, or any downtown site, is the answer not in such a car-centric downtown.

"Can you imagine what this would do to traffic downtown before and after a game?" said Abraham Akkerman of the university's geography and planning department.

"City hall should work strategically. Automobile traffic should be phased out gradually over the next 10 to 15 years from large parts of the downtown, replaced by free small shuttle buses like in other, enlightened, cities," said Akkerman.

"London's Oxford Street, the main drag of the UK capital, has been off limits to auto traffic for ages and it has worked charms for the entire West End commercial district. Only when there is no significant auto traffic downtown can we meaningfully contemplate to place the arena there."

Lindberg said she'd at least like the city to eventually get rid of parking fees.

"I think that those down the road are going to be eliminated anyway due to changes in our transportation infrastructure and right now the city is relying on that revenue and we need to wean ourselves off of it," she said.

Other possibilities

The 22nd Street parking lot scenario could hit a brick wall: it's owned by the companies that own the Midtown Plaza.

Asked if the mall owners would ever actually consider selling the property to the city, Midtown Plaza general manager Terry Napper replied, "Do not think so."

Other sites have come up, though. Some people mentioned the city yards north of the Saskatoon Police Service police station, though the city has recently waved off one development proposal for that area.

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"That [site is] very appealing from a city perspective because they own the land. So there will be less initial cost," said Lindberg.

"However you never want to make a decision based on initial costs. You want to look at how long that facility is going to be in place and who is going to benefit from it in the community."

Randy Pshebylo, the executive director of the Riversdale business improvement district, thinks the city yards may be too remote, especially in a prairie city.

"It's minus 22 and the wind is [out] and it's 10:30 at night. I can't get a cab, the buses are full and I can't stay in the building so what can I do?" said Pshebylo. "Is there going to be an option for me to stay there after the concert?"

City councillor Darren Hill has suggested the city consider putting a new downtown library branch in the same building as the arena.

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"I think ideas like that are precisely the kind of ideas that need to be circulating," said Walker.

Walker suggested another site, too: the Toys 'R' Us parking lot on the south side of the Midtown Plaza.

Next steps

The city wants to pick an arena location by the end of this year.

Murray Totland, the city's former general manager, says that's a good thing.

"If they accomplish that this year, I think it brings some certainty to the downtown plan," he said.