City council Tuesday approved a report by the mayor’s office that calls for a multi-phase analysis of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp.’s concept for an $890-million sports complex, dubbed CalgaryNEXT, in the West Village.
The group, which owns the Calgary Flames, Stampeders, Hitmen and Roughneck teams, has proposed to build a new NHL arena, football stadium and public field house on contaminated land west of 14th Street S.W. and along Bow Trail.
Ken King, president of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., says the owners would contribute $200 million toward the project. The remaining $690 million would be financed through a $250-million ticket tax, another $200 million from the city for the public field house, and $240 million from a community revitalization levy.
The price tag doesn’t include any associated infrastructure expenses or the cost to remediate an estimated two million litres of toxic creosote left in the ground after a former wood preserving plant closed in 1962.
“It would be helpful if they were to flesh out their thinking even further,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who earlier called the proposal a “half-baked” concept. “The numbers are very vague in terms of the costs. We don’t really have a sense of good design.”
The report by the mayor’s office suggests conducting an initial examination of economic, design and business plans, remediation of the contaminated land in the West Village, any impacts of integrating the unfunded public field house and an analysis of potential revenue from a community revitalization levy.
The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation recently selected WorleyParsons to conduct a six-month environmental assessment of the site to gauge the scale of the contamination and options to remediate the land.
Administration would be asked to report its findings no later than April 30, 2016.
If council deems the project feasible, administration would be tasked to examine effects on Calgary’s downtown and the West Village area redevelopment plan.
“The city has a lot of questions to answer, particularly around how much it’s going to cost to remediate the lands in the West Village,” Nenshi said.
thowell@calgaryherald.com
