Saskatoon city administration is looking at the Midtown North Parking Lot in Saskatoon as the new site for the downtown event center.
Potential sites for the arena were whittled down to the North downtown city yards and the Midtown location, but a special meeting was held at City Council Thursday afternoon with a report to authorize the purchase of the parking lot for $25 million.
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The acquisition of the 5.28 acres of concrete will need to be approved by City Council by November 30, with closing and possession dates tentatively set for December 15.
“In the event City Council has not approved the Downtown Entertainment and Event District as a capital project by July 31, 2024, Midtown has the option to re-purchase the North Lot at the same price of $25 million. The city has the option to postpone the re-purchase timeline to July 31, 2027,” read the city report.
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Before construction can begin the city is obligated to build 526 parking stalls on city-owned lands located south of 22nd Street and east of Idylwyld Drive for the general public.
A new access ramp will need to be built by the city to Midtown’s existing parking lots, as well as a new loading dock access tunnel.
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The city and Midtown will also enter into a parking management agreement before construction begins, where the city would cover 29 per cent of Midtown’s total parking operation costs, and Midtown would collect parking and billboard revenue from the North Lot to reimburse the city with operating, management and maintenance costs first reimbursed.
The report to the city lists a range of other obligations and agreements that still need to be made.
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Money used to purchase the lot will be pulled from the Property Realized Reserve, which receives no funding from taxpayer contributions.
The report to the city says the next steps will be various planning and design studies for the project.
The city collected data through Insightrix Research Inc. between August 30 and September 5 of this year and looked at whether people saw opportunities or challenges with the two potential sites.
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Out of the survey respondents, 738 completed the online survey, and 80 completed it over the phone. Looking at the Midtown location, 60 percent of respondents saw one or more opportunities, and 83 percent saw one or more challenges.
The North downtown yards location had 62 per cent of respondents saying they saw one or more opportunities, with 75 per cent noting that they saw one or more challenges.
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