from todays T&T:
Moncton plans Coliseum future
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Times and Transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=13782
A lot of dominoes still have to fall in place,and at this point no one has actually pushed over the first one,but nevertheless, Moncton city council got a glimpse last night at what the future could look like for two important city facilities.
One of the facilities, the proposed North End Recreation Centre, doesn’t even exist yet, but it has now had various scenarios plotted by consultants Conrad Boychuk from CEI Architecture and Ron Bidulka from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who suggest the multipurpose community recreation centre could be built on land beside Evergreen Park School for anywhere from $11-$14 million.
Meanwhile, the consultants’ scenarios for repurposing the Moncton Coliseum Complex for life after the proposed downtown multipurpose centre is built involve a similar cost range.
That would be dictated by whether or not council accepted their recommendation to rip out the Coliseum’s seating areas and make it a multi-court space for various amateur gymnasium sports, everything from tennis and badminton to basketball, volleyball,soccer and gymnastics.
When it comes to a post-downtown centre Coliseum, there’s a variety of actions the city could take, Boychuk said, including doing nothing to it in terms of renovations or simply demolishing the building.
“We know there’s a sweet spot somewhere between those extremes,”he said.
The consulting team prepared two separate reports, reflecting the fact the projects are for all intents and purposes completely separate.
However, the projects are somewhat intertwined in that should the Coliseum one day become a community sports and recreation centre, it could feasibly house some elements that might have otherwise gone to the north end centre.
As the consultants saw it, a reconfigured Coliseum would be a community sports centre serving the overall region, while the north-end centre, though open to all, would mostly draw users from the roughly 25,000 Monctonians who live in that part of the city.
The consultants argued whatever happens to the Moncton Coliseum Complex, its future should not determine the future of the north end community centre project. As their report concluded, “Moncton City Council recognized that the repurposing of the Coliseum may benefit the North End community and consequently, have an impact on the definition or vision of the North End Recreation Centre” they wrote.“The Planning Team agrees that there will be a benefit to this part of the city but does not believe that a repurposed Coliseum will alleviate the need for a new community recreation centre, or satisfy the various groups that have been advocating for a new recreation centre for this part of the City.”
The consultants’ recommendation is a victory for anyone who was worried the development of the downtown centre might backfire for the people of the fast-growing northwest end.
As a regional sports and rec centre, the Coliseum complex would continue to be an important trade show venue, a profitable business that would grow once interior changes to the Coliseum increased the usable floor space. Through scheduling, the space used day to day for sports like tennis and badminton and soccer could be converted with little effort to trade show space.
“This is a big building and there’s a lot of opportunity for recreation and also for complementing the Agrena,” said Ron Bidulka.
The consultants also looked at different possibilities for the Moncton Coliseum’s extensive lands, suggesting there may be room for further residential development to the north of the property and possibly some light industrial on the west near the City of Moncton’s Operations Centre on Worthington Avenue. It was however not a focus of discussion at the council meeting.
Council voted to accept the reports, and for the north end centre, it’s a matter of finding partnerships to fund the proposed project. Rod Higgins, the City of Moncton’s general manager of parks and leisure services, said his first step will be to meet with the community group advocating and long involved in developing the vision for the north end centre.
personal note - It's becoming clearer that a repurposing of the Coliseum will not impact on the need for a new community centre in the northwest end. This should have been obvious in the first place since the Coliseum isn't even in the northwest end. Still, it's good to have this in black & white.
From the sounds of it, the Coliseums destiny will principally be that as a trade centre, but which can be repurposed when not otherwise occupied as an indoor sporting venue, including indoor soccer. This is a sound plan but comes with a fairly hefty price tag for the renovations (about $15M). On CBC today, they mentioned that they might get rid of the current earthen berm in from of the Coliseum and excavate down so that the main entrance would be on the ground floor of the agrena and at the ice surface level of the current rink. This would allow for an expansive entry into the building with a 25-30' ceiling. This is an intriguing thought.
I think it's safe to say that planning for the north end community centre at Evergreen Park School can now proceed forthwith. The budget here is about $14M, but the city has already set aside $6M of this.
In total, the Coliseum renovations and the new community centre will cost nearly $30M, which is a pretty big chunk of change on top of the $95M or so budgeted for the new downtown events centre……..
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