Leap of faith required to bring arena downtown

Building a $90-million-plus arena and entertainment centre downtown instead of at Morrow Park would require a leap of faith.

Right now, that’s the key message from a 93-page consultant’s report that has flipped the picture on replacing the aging Memorial Centre arena.

Three years ago, Sierra Planning and Management told city council Morrow Park was the number 1 choice among a handful of prospective sites.

The city-owned public works yard just off George Street was not as nearly highly ranked.

But following the 2018 election a new council took a bold step, asking Sierra to look at a site that combined the works yard with the Market Plaza mall to the south and two other properties.

Sierra’s answer: that site — including the George Street strip mall that houses a Smitty’s restaurant and the Tim Hortons to the north — is the premier location for a 5,800-seat arena/concert venue and a second 500-seat ice pad.

Morrow Park is the safer choice, the consultants note. The city already owns it and it is believed to be free of serious industrial contamination.

However, asked to look at the combined Market Plaza-works yard site, Sierra shifted its focus to the potential growth benefits from a modern, downtown sports and entertainment complex.

Those benefits far outstrip what could be realized by building at Morrow Park, according to the report.

On the hard numbers side — although even the “hard” numbers are admitted to be less than guaranteed — a downtown site would enhance the value of surrounding properties to the tune of $3.2 million annually in new property taxes.

A Morrow Park arena’s impact on nearby properties would produce $855,000 in new taxes, $2.35 million less.

The risks involved in the downtown site are considerable.

It is partly in the flood plain, nearby properties are known to be contaminated, the Market Plaza owner had said he is not interested in selling and additional property costs would be in the millions of dollars.

However, site remediation is possible, a new flood plain study that could provide exemptions for properly constructed downtown sites is underway, and the private property owners could be open to negotiations that include shared ownership of the complex.

Morrow Park also has risks relating to appeasing the Peterborough Agricultural Society, which runs the Peterborough Exhibition there, and dealing with the Morrow Trust, which still limits use of the park.

Right now, city council doesn’t have to give a lot of thought to the specifics of those issues.

Council is being asked if it will give Sierra the green light to get more detail on them, and explore talks with owners of all three properties that would need to be assembled.

We have supported a joint public works-Market Plaza site as the best option since former mayor Daryl Bennett first proposed it.

A public investment of that size should deliver the greatest long-term benefit for growth. The closer it is to downtown, the more likely that benefit will be realized.

Likely, but not guaranteed. The Sierra report uses terms like “evidence to suggest” and “reasonable expectation” that new downtown development would flow from the lift created by a sports and entertainment centre.

Council should take this first leap of faith, but not without considering their future resolve to make a difficult but rewarding project work.