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Calgary council votes in favour of taking steps toward arena project, gauging Flames partnership interest

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Councillors spent more than three hours Wednesday grilling administration about the now-dead deal to partner with the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) to build a new event centre.

Council then went into a closed-door session to continue the update and to determine what the next steps could be in building a new arena to replace the aging Saddledome.

City council voted unanimously Wednesday night to engage with a third party that will look into whether or not Flames' ownership is interested in revisiting a potential partnership to build a new event centre.

The city will also be looking into other potential partners to help build a new arena, and a report is expected in early March.

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and the Calgary Stampede issued a press release early Thursday morning expressing their support for the ongoing discussions surrounding a new event centre.

"We are pleased to see council's interest in seeking resolution on the event centre project," said Kate Thompson, CMLC President and CEO.

"Meanwhile, we are keeping our eyes squarely on delivering the exciting and transformational projects on track for completion in 2024: the BMO Centre expansion, the Stampede Trail redevelopment, and the 17th Avenue extension and Stampede (LRT) station rebuild."

Thompson went on to say that, although a new event centre is part of the plan to revitalize the River District, the area is still moving in the right direction and is attracting significant investment.

"A multitude of interconnected projects, large and small, will collectively shape Calgary’s Culture + Entertainment District (C+E) and drive its success," she said.

"We’re confident that the significant investment already committed here will sustain the vision and create something Calgarians can be proud of."

Planning department general manager Stuart Dalgleish presented a timeline of what led up to the deal, which officially ended on Dec. 31, 2021.

An agreement to build a new event centre was officially signed in December 2019 between the city and CSEC, with each party deciding to share the $550 million cost for the project.

After at least eight extensions and a three-month project pause, a revised deal was signed in July 2021 when costs ballooned to $608 million. It was then that the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation was replaced as a development manager on the project.

A development permit was approved in November 2021, which came with 70 conditions for the project, including climate mitigation and right-of-way work. It was at that point that costs increased again, to an estimated $634 million – overruns CSEC would have to pay for.

Dalgliesh said the city had proposed to cover about $6 million worth of roadway reconstruction costs and committed to help CSEC find funding to pay for the sidewalk area plan and solar panels.

The "at-issue costs" left for CSEC to pick up, according to the city, totalled about $9.6 million.

On Dec. 20, 2021, Mayor Jyoti Gondek told journalists that the Flames' ownership group had pulled out of the event centre deal. A statement from CSEC President John Bean on Jan. 4 said, "under the current circumstances we do not see a path forward that would create a viable partnership with the city."

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