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Trio named as Calgary event centre third party for negotiations, timeline still undetermined – Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Trio named as Calgary event centre third party for negotiations, timeline still undetermined - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

A trio of Calgary businessmen have been selected as the third party to help determine whether Calgary Flames ownership is interested in re-entering negotiations to resurrect an agreement to build a new event centre with the City of Calgary.

City officials announced on Wednesday that the third party is made up of three men with commercial real estate experience: CBRE executive vice president John Fisher, NAIOP Calgary director of strategic initiatives Guy Huntingford, and Phil Swift, executive chairman at Ayrshire Group.

According to Stuart Dalgleish, the City of Calgary’s general manager of planning and development, the group brings “considerable expertise” in commercial real estate as well as large developments.

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“The third party is having discussions with both the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) and the City of Calgary with a view to determining whether there is interest in discussions towards a new event centre,” Dalgleish told reporters following Wednesday’s event centre committee meeting.

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The update from administration came after the committee went into closed session for nearly two hours.

The third party has also been tasked with finding other parties interested in partnering on the event centre project. But administration said the group has only engaged with the city and Flames ownership so far.

City officials also said that there is no formal timeline or commitment in place to “establish interest in re-entering discussions to construct an event centre and what conditions might be required to do so.”


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NHL commissioner hopeful Calgary and Flames ownership can get event centre restarted


NHL commissioner hopeful Calgary and Flames ownership can get event centre restarted – May 4, 2022

Construction was set to begin back in January on the more than $600 million event centre, but the agreement between the City of Calgary and CSEC to replace the aging Saddledome officially came to an end on Dec. 31, 2021.

Days earlier, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she was informed by CSEC that it would not be going forward with the project.

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At the time, CSEC said that there was no viable path to complete the project due to rising costs, as well as concerns with infrastructure and climate costs attached to the development permit by the Calgary Planning Commission.

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According to city administration, the third party will bring forward recommendations on a possible path forward after clarifying the “items and interests behind the terminated agreement and the current landscape” of the event centre project, following meetings with the city and CSEC.

“We had a hurdle that was building a relationship. So we’ve done that and we’re on our way,” event centre committee chair Sonya Sharp said. “Everybody wants an event centre built, so now we’re going to move forward with administration and with the third party — the event centre committee is working towards that goal.”

City officials said the third party is under a confidentiality agreement and will report back to city administration on progress, which will be brought to the committee for updates.


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Calgary city council creates committee to oversee work on event centre project


Calgary city council creates committee to oversee work on event centre project – Mar 8, 2022

Sharp said her hope is to maintain transparency with the public throughout the process.

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“With anything that comes publicly, we are going to make sure we can say what we can publicly,” the Ward 1 councillor said. “We also have to respect business and business owners that a lot that confidentiality has to remain.

“So we have to make sure that what we can say in the public is for the best interest of everybody, including Calgarians.”

The original deal to build a replacement for the aging Saddledome was struck in 2019 with a total cost of $550 million, but CSEC said costs had ballooned to around $640 million by December 2021.

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The event centre committee was formed back in March following a unanimous vote by city council to find the third party.

The committee was also tasked with building on the work already completed by the city on the project.

The next event centre committee meeting is scheduled for July.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Calgary city council strikes committee to oversee work on event centre project – Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Calgary city council strikes committee to oversee work on event centre project - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Calgary’s city council has struck a committee tasked with overseeing progress on an event centre project just months after an agreement with Calgary Flames ownership collapsed prior to construction.

The creation of the committee comes after council spent hours behind closed doors on Tuesday morning.

In a unanimous vote, council agreed to appoint Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, and her colleagues Dan McLean and Courtney Walcott to the committee. Councillors also agreed to appoint Deborah Yedlin from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Brad Parry from Calgary Economic Development as public members.

“I think it’s not if an event centre gets built, but when an event centre gets built,” Sharp told reporters. “The one thing I can guarantee with this committee is speed.”

Sharp said she’s hoping the committee holds its first meeting sometime in the next month.

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Calgary city council united in commitment to new event centre after lengthy meeting

It comes after a unanimous vote by city council in January to find a third party to engage with Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) to gauge their interest in re-entering discussions to build an event centre, as well as seek third parties interested in partnering on the project.

According to the committee’s terms of reference, it will be tasked with reviewing information provided by city administration and the undisclosed third party regarding development of an event centre within a culture and entertainment district.


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City council seeks 3rd party to ‘start fresh,’ find partners for Calgary Event Centre – Jan 13, 2022

The committee is also being tasked with building on work already undertaken by the Event Centre Assessment Committee. That committee, chaired by then-Ward 6 Coun. Jeff Davison, was formed in 2018 by the previous city council to develop a partnership framework, financial strategy and determine a location to build a new event centre.

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“The mandate is to build on the foundation that was created on the previous file and also to move forward in any way necessary,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said.

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The agreement between the City of Calgary and CSEC to replace the aging Saddledome officially came to an end on Dec. 31, 2021 with just weeks to go until construction work was scheduled to begin.

CSEC said at the time that there was no viable path to complete the project due to rising costs, as well as concerns with the infrastructure and climate costs attached to the development permit by the Calgary Planning Commission.

At the time, CSEC said the Flames plan to stay and play at the Saddledome “for many years to come.”


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Calgary city council discusses how event centre deal fell through


Calgary city council discusses how event centre deal fell through – Jan 12, 2022

Gondek said she feels council is “in really good shape” and united in its commitment to build an event centre and entertainment and culture district in the Victoria Park area.

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“Not only in January did we come together unanimously as a council to say we need to move forward on seeing what an event centre looks like in an arts and culture district, entertainment district, if you will,” Gondek said. “Now, unanimously, we have appointed members to the committee that will oversee the work of administration and the third party.”

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Gondek says City of Calgary is committed to building event centre

Walcott told reporters he sees his role on the committee in two parts: ensure the project is an anchor in the redevelopment in East Victoria Park and ensure public money is being used responsibly.

“The people that are going to be sitting within this space have to guarantee that whatever is being provided to the public and the bill that is being footed to pay for it, is something that everybody can see value in,” Walcott said.

–More to come

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Calgary city council to get briefing Tuesday on event centre project – Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Calgary city council to get briefing Tuesday on event centre project - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Three months after the deal to build a replacement for the aging Saddledome fell through, Calgary city councillors are scheduled to be briefed on the event centre project at their meeting on Tuesday.

The briefing is set to be confidential, and it remains unclear what details, if any, will be made public.

It comes after a unanimous vote by council back in January to engage with a third party to determine if the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. would be interested in re-entering discussions on building an event centre, or if there are other parties interested in partnering with the City of Calgary to complete the project.

“This time we’re looking at the entertainment district as a whole, which includes the event centre,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said after the meeting in January. “It may be possible that we need to enter into a partnership that includes more than two parties.

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“We’re also looking into everything else that goes into an entertainment district, so we’re being very holistic in how we’re moving forward.”

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According to city officials, between $23 million to $24 million had been spent to date on the event centre project. CSEC and the city are expected to split those costs, as well as the remaining wind-down costs, as part of their agreement.

Event centre timeline

The original deal between the City of Calgary and CSEC to build the event centre was signed in July 2019.

As part of the agreement, both sides were to cover the half cost of the then $550-million building. The city agreed to provide the land and retain ownership of the building, as well as pay $22.4 million to demolish the Saddledome and for reclamation work on the land.

It was a “monumental move forward,” according to Jeff Davison, who served on the event centre assessment committee at the time.

“The new Calgary event centre wasn’t just about a building for hockey games,” Davison told Global News on Monday. “It was, ultimately, a catalytic move to develop up to $3 billion worth of real estate, to think about how we achieve economic recovery and how do we achieve downtown recovery.”

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Davison said there was a lot of work in that first year, including examining similar builds and entertainment districts in other cities, and engaging with Calgarians.

But in the spring of 2021, the project was paused after it was revealed costs had escalated to $608 million.

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CSEC and the city re-entered negotiations to adjust the agreement, which saw both parties increase their share by $12.5 million through a clause in the previous agreement.

As part of the redeveloped deal, the city’s share of the costs went up to $287.5 million and Calgary Municipal Land Corp. was replaced by CSEC as development manager. CSEC also committed to covering the risk of all cost overruns moving forward, and was set to contribute $321 million to build the project.

“I think the best thing about that agreement was we got our partner to carry all the cost overruns,” Davison said.

“When we think about achieving that whole (entertainment district), achieving all of those benefits and getting our money out of the deal; you couldn’t have asked for a better setup.”

The development permit was brought to the Calgary Planning Commission in Nov. 2021.

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As part of a list of 70 conditions attached to the approval of the development permit, the commission recommended sidewalk improvements and climate mitigation on the roof. City officials said at the time that conditions are typically attached to development permits as part of their approval.

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One month later, Gondek announced via Twitter that CSEC majority shareholder Murray Edwards informed her that there was no viable path to complete the project due to rising costs, and Flames ownership would be pulling out of the deal.

CSEC said at the time that both sides were in “mutual alignment” when it comes to wanting to build an event centre, but Flames ownership had concerns with the infrastructure and climate costs attached to the development permit, “that were introduced by the city following our July agreement.”

City officials said the city offered to cover $6.4 million for roadway reconstruction as part of right-of-way costs totalling $12.1 million. The climate resiliency items were set to cost $3.9 million, and officials said the city offered to find grant funding to cover those costs.

“I think that it’s pretty common that large infrastructure projects of a sports nature — or non-sports nature — usually come in substantially overbudget,” said Concordia University economics professor Moshe Lander. “I think the shocking factor is that when we start talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, an extra $100 million among friends is a huge number.

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“But in the grand scheme of things, 20 per cent over costs wasn’t that big a deal.”

As part of the deal, because both the city and Flames ownership didn’t agree to move forward to construction by Dec. 31, 2021, the event centre agreement ended.

“It was a shame to see the whole thing fall apart,” Davison said.

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Ryan Pike, the managing editor of the Flames Nation website, said he doesn’t expect the Flames to relocate given the financial success of the team in Calgary. However, he said fans were anxious when the deal collapsed.

“I think there’s a bit of fan consternation or anxiety because until you have a building and a long-term lease, there’s always a little bit of fan anxiety,” Pike said.

“A lot of fans, I think their mindset is, ‘Oh, goodness, did we deal with this already? Why are we dealing with this again?’ I think that’s where a lot of the the frustration boiled over.”

At the time, CSEC said the Flames plan to stay and play at the Saddledome “for many years to come.”

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.