The City of Greater Sudbury has named BBB Architects Toronto Inc. and J.L. Richards and Associates Ltd. as the preferred architects for the downtown events centre project.
City Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti made the announcement during the city's Nov. 26 council meeting, at which he delivered an update on the city’s $225-million downtown arena/events centre project.
(The building’s budget is $200 million, but Sudbury.com uses the $225-million figure to reflect total budgeted costs, which include downtown land acquisitions/demolitions and money spent on the since-cancelled Kingsway Entertainment District, a precursor to the current project.)
Although none of the five prime architectural firms to bid on the downtown events centre were locally headquartered, Ottawa-based J.L. Richards & Associates Ltd. has deep roots in Sudbury, where they have maintained an office since 1974 (a new office building was constructed at 314 Countryside Dr. in 2014).
Included in J.L. Richards’ portfolio is the $170-million Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, a multipurpose arena which opened in 1996 and houses the Ottawa Senators. For this project, J.L. Richards provided “mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering services including contract documentation and administration, and on-site inspection during construction.”
Among their recent projects in Sudbury is The Refettorio, Yes Theatre’s new downtown-based outdoor performance space. One of their older but well-recognized local projects is the $20-million Vale Living with Lakes Centre, which opened in 2011 and earned an award of excellence at the 2012 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.
Among BBB Architects’ projects is the Scotiabank Arena (formerly Air Canada Centre) in Toronto, which opened in 1999 and hosts the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Rock. They also undertook the design of New York City’s Madison Square Garden renovation in 2014.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Cecutti said he has already been in discussions with BBB Architects principal Chris O'Reilly, who will be introduced to city council with a project update in the new year.
Meanwhile, despite what Cecutti described as rumblings online to the contrary, the city has yet to select a specific location within the south district of downtown Sudbury to house the arena, nor have any decisions been made for the balance of the lands.
“We’re still in the process of doing that work,” he said, noting that geotechnical work is being done to better understand ground conditions and that KKR Advisors (events centre advisors) staff have been meeting with parties interested in developing the south district
The city is in the process of shoring up a swath of land in downtown Sudbury to accommodate not only the events centre, but other services to accompany it.
“Council’s certainly stated their intention to make most of the balance of the lands available to private developers on complementary-style development,” Cecutti described, noting that their goal in selecting a specific site for the events centre will be to “optimize the performance of the events centre.”
“We have the opportunity to create a whole new community within the community of downtown, and that’s a wonderful opportunity,” he said.
“Everybody’s really excited about that, and it also puts a lot of pressure on the team to get it right. We’ll be judged for many, many years on the choices that we’ve made.”
As Sudbury.com reported prior to Tuesday’s meeting, the city is expected to spend at least $2.49 million on the Wacky Wings property, whose owners are the lone holdouts within the south district and were expropriated by the city.
Although the property is now owned by the city, the restaurant has been allowed to continue operating until the end of March.
While business owner Craig Burgess told Sudbury.com that the total amount paid could end up doubling when all is said and done, Cecutti told city council members on Tuesday that the expropriation settlement process is a long one, adding, “it will probably be several years before we hear the final outcome of that.”
As the project continues rolling out, Cecutti pledged to provide city council members with regular updates on how each step aligns with its approved budget and how its timeline is panning out.
Under its current timeline, the events centre’s grand opening is slated to take place in May 2028.
The next big step will be publicly announcing the events centre’s preferred location, which Cecutti said would likely take place in February.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
