Edmonton city council passes new arena deal
Council has passed a deal that will see the city of Edmonton and Oilers owner Daryl Katz each put in more money to offset the $55 million shortfall needed to build the new downtown arena.
All but three city councillors voted in favour of the deal. Kerry Diotte, Tony Caterina and Linda Sloan voted against the agreement.
Katz will chip in an additional $15 million through the Edmonton Arena Corporation and another $15 million will come from the Community Revitalization Levy [CRL].
The city hopes to get a $25 million grant from the province's Regional Collaboration Program. Last week, a majority of the Capital Region Board — which represents municipalities around Edmonton — agreed to support the city's application.
Katz, who joined a news conference held after the council meeting by phone, said the project was a "once in a generation opportunity."
"The result today is a landmark agreement that enables our city to move forward in an enormously positive way," Katz said.
Katz thanked Mandel — who he called a visionary — as well as city administration and city councillors for the "extraordinary time and effort" they put towards the project.
He also thanked members of the Capital Region Board for stepping up, as well as the residents of Edmonton.
"I can't tell you how exciting it is for me and everybody at Katz Group to think about having 20,000 people downtown night after night enjoying a game or going to a concert or some other event," he said.
"And the opportunity that creates for existing businesses downtown."
Mandel said that discussions had been underway with the Katz Group over the past couple of days.
"They were very responsive and I've got to say, tremendously cooperative," Mandel said. "No strings. Nothing. Just 'let's get on with this project.'"
Katz admitted that there was pressure to get a deal completed.
"Everybody was feeling pressure. This was not an easy deal."
Construction on the arena is expected to start in spring 2014.
The province still has to approve the application for the $25 million Regional Collaboration Grant, though city manager Simon Farbrother said the province has been positive in discussions.
A CRL is a controversial practice based on the belief that a public project such as an arena would encourage new businesses to spring up around them.
The resulting increase in property taxes from those developments are then funnelled back into the area.
The meeting started at 1:30 p.m. and CBC journalists Gareth Hampshire (@cbcgareth), Marion Warnica (@warnicam) and Michelle Bellefontaine (@MBellefontaine) covered the action.
You can see all their tweets compiled in this blog.
