Replace the Memorial Centre: Consultant
A new OHL facility is key, but concerts are a priority too
The city would be wise to consider replacing the Memorial Centre with a new sports and entertainment centre, consultants told councillors on Monday and the mayor said he likes the idea.
“We have the ability to have an events facility that is outside the ordinary,” said Mayor Daryl Bennett.
Bennett also said he wants to see large concerts here, and perhaps a new entertainment centre can allow that.
“We want this to be a place for acts to start their tours,” he said.
Council heard a presentation on Monday at City Hall from Jon Hack, the director of Torontobased consultant Sierra Planning and Management, and from Marion LaRue of the architecture firm DIALOG.
Hack’s firm was hired to consider whether the city ought to build a new OHL arena and entertainment centre to replace the Memorial Centre, and he wrote a report to councillors recommending it.
He called the Mem Centre a “storied” building, but said his job is to consider the future.
Hack said Peterborough could support a new sports and entertainment complex that could host major concerts and tradeshows in addition to sporting events.
“The city is in the events business – over and above community sports,” he said.
Many iconic music acts stop outside the GTA, Hack said, in venues where there are more seats than the Memorial Centre.
He said Peterborough is missing out, for lack of a larger entertainment centre – but maybe could do better in the future if council reinvests in a new facility.
“The market is there to catch it, going forward,” he added. “This is economic development: this is drawing business from elsewhere.”
Hack didn’t say how much it would cost to build such an entertainment centre, or where it should go in the city. Further information is expected when Sierra submits a final report to council May 18.
Sierra was hired by the city is early December to do the study, at a cost of $157,800.
Coun. Dean Pappas asked what the ideal seating capacity of a new sports and entertainment centre would be.
“What’s your feeling there? Because we don’t want to build it too small,” he said.
Hack said that’s tricky to determine: You want it to be large, yet it should not feel as though seats are empty for sporting events.
Yet LaRue said there are ways to design the building so it can seem like a more “intimate” setting for smaller sporting events.
Coun. Dan McWilliams emphasized that the building is first and foremost a sports facility rather than an entertainment venue – he said that’s “key.”
“We’re looking for an OHL facility – I think that’s the first thing on the agenda,” he said. “The first thing we need is an OHL facility. Will the other things melt into that?”
Hack said it would indeed be “the latest generation” of OHL facilities – but it must be a place where the tenant – in this case the Peterborough Petes – can “maximize the revenue.”
McWilliams also asked how Hack sees the Memorial Centre “repurposed.”
“Because I don’t think the community will have an appetite to tear it down,” he said.
Hack said LaRue’s team of designers is looking at ways to reuse the Mem Centre.
“The answer’s yes – we are looking at it (reuse of the PMC),” Hack said – although they want to have a public consultation on it first.
LaRue said it could take a year to 18 months to design a new facility, and perhaps another two years to build it.