Hizzoner is a column written by the mayors of Niagara. This edition comes from St. Catharines’ Brian McMullan.
BRIAN McMULLAN/Special to Bullet News
It’s an exciting time in St. Catharines as our downtown continues to transform as we witness council’s shared vision take shape.
Our downtown core has scored a hat trick with our new Carlisle Street parking garage, our performing arts centre and now our spectator facility helping to revitalize our community.
The new $45-million spectator facility, which will be built on land known as the lower level parking lot at 55 McGuire St., is the final piece of the puzzle in our revitalization plans which will bring new life into the heart of our city.
Traditionally, when the City puts out a request for proposals, interested companies submit a bid based on a pre-existing design. For this project, interested firms were asked to submit a design to meet our set budget.
Brian McMullan
Three firms – Ball/Rankin Construction, Giffels Westpro/Norr Project Team and PCL Contractors were selected to submit proposals. Those proposals were evaluated by CBRE – our consultants, senior staff, as well as members of Council as part of the project team, including myself, and councillors Jeff Burch, Matt Harris, Bill Phillips and Peter Secord.
Ball/Rankin has been awarded the contract with its winning proposal of a U-shaped bowl, designed to accommodate 5,036 seats (532 retractable) and up to 6,000 people when including use of the floor for concerts.
It also includes two access bridges to St. Paul Street, which are being donated, and 110 on-site parking spots. Council is pleased that we have a local company taking on this project and we’re excited to fine tune this design and start construction.
As our hockey fans may have heard – we have also signed a 20-year licence agreement with the Niagara IceDogs. The ‘Dogs will be calling the new spectator facility home during their Ontario Hockey League season.
As part of the agreement, the City will receive 10 per cent of gross ticket sales of all IceDogs games, as well as a $1 surcharge for every ticket sold
for the first five years with the option to increase the surcharge every five years.
We are confident the City of St. Catharines will have a top-shelf venue where the iceDogs can hit the ice and we can offer other entertainment throughout the year like ice shows, concerts, and trade shows.
The city of St. Catharines is demonstrating true leadership by investing in our infrastructure, in our community and in our future.
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3 Comments on "Hizzoner: St. Catharines council showing leadership by investing in downtown infrastructure"
There comes a time when you decide to stop pumping money into an old car that is falling apart and has become a money pit – and just suck it up and buy a new one.
Apply that to downtown St. Catharines. Council needs to remember EDR
Expropriate – demolish – rebuild.
The one item that stands out to me, is the $1.00 surcharge on every Icedogs ticket sold, with the option of increasing this in the future……Now the city will see this as a money maker for city coffers and the surcharge will definitely go up, raising the price of admission and thus threatening to reduce the tickets sold and support for the team….theoretically, the city could drive the IceDogs out of business…..look at other things the city has a finger in….and see the result of charging too much and having poor public support.
Downtown St. Catharines needs a fresh coat of paint. The grimy bars shouldn’t be the main attraction for the young adults.