Thunder Bay is trolling for business partners to help finance, operate, and find a hockey team for its proposed arena and convention centre.
The third stage of planning is underway for a $106-million downtown waterfront facility that would handle the city's growing conference business and replace 62-yearold Fort William Gardens.
The city issued a request for expressions of interest (RFEI) for its Event Centre in late June.
Michael Smith, the city's general manager of facilities, said the exercise will “gauge interest” and find out what parties are willing to manage the building, run its concessions, fill its schedule, and deliver a lead anchor tenant.
On the project advisory team is PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will help sort through the submissions after the Aug. 30 closing date.
“We would maintain the ownership of the building but we're certainly open to someone operating and looking after the programming and food and beverage component,” said Smith, “and there might be someone interested in relocating a team once we build it.”
Preliminary plans call for a 5,700-seat multi-purpose arena and an attached 50,000-square-foot conference centre with meeting rooms and banquet seating for 1,000.
The three-level arena would house an NHL-sized rink, 24 luxury boxes, club seating for 750, and a 5,000-square-foot restaurant. The Events Centre would replace the outdated 3,371-seat Fort William Gardens, built in 1951.
This next phase involves filing for government funding, finalizing a business plan, firming up the capital costs, and drawing the schematic designs.
“That would put us in a position where, if funding is annnounced, it gets us to the construction-ready stage,” said Smith.
The city has socked away $25 million but unless senior levels of government chip in, the centre is likely a non-starter.
“The cash has to be there, but in no way does this commit us to building it,” said Smith. “This (RFEI) is just putting it out there saying, what's the appetite for something like this?”
An earlier application to the federal P3 Canada Fund was rejected with Ottawa refusing to pay for new sports arenas.
“They told us in prior applications that they wouldn't fund those types of things, but certainly we've got the conference piece for it and who knows what may change,” said Smith.
Should everything fall into place, the tentative groundbreaking is September, 2017. The site selected is a city-owned block of the north core that's a slapshot away from Thunder Bay's new waterfront development and is in a section of the city that's experiencing a rebirth as an entertainment district.
Finding an arena anchor tenant is key to the attraction strategy.
Thunder Bay has its popular Lakehead University men's hockey team but the city and PricewaterhouseCoopers is setting its nets for a minor professional hockey franchise, like the American Hockey League, or a top-tier amateur junior franchise.
Ron Bidulka, managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said Thunder Bay is not too far off the beaten path to attract an expansion franchise or host a relocated team. The market appetite for a league eyeballing the city “would be strong” considering its economic growth prospects and three air carriers with direct connections to Toronto, Winnipeg and Chicago.
Also to be examined is whether the arena and convention hall would be run by a professional management firm.
Bidulka said these firms provide value-added services that can assist on design, marketing, can operate the concessions and catering, schedule the programming, and have solid connections with major entertainment acts on tour.
These firms also pursue arena naming and beer pouring rights. Bidulka, who has worked on arena projects in Sault Ste. Marie, Guelph, Kingston, Windsor, Grand Prairie and Fort McMurray, said there are risks and rewards to hiring management firms, but that will be part of the evaluation process.
“Some have great track records in programming and are able to successfully manage these facilities so they don't lose a great deal of money, but can make money in some cases.”
He points to profitable private-managed arenas such as Kingston's K-Rock Centre ($400,000-$500,000 a year) and London's Budweiser Gardens ($700,000-$800,000 a year).
“They're fundamentally different markets but they don't all lose money.”
www.thunderbay.ca/City_Government/News_and_Strategic_Initiatives/Event_Centre.htm
