[Daveography]

Gary Lamphier: Northlands unveils bold redevelopment plan
The highlights of Northlands’ sweeping revitalization plan include:

• The transformation of Rexall Place into the Northlands Ice Coliseum, a two-floor arena housing six or seven sheets of ice with seats for up to 3,000 spectators. The redesigned facility would feature exterior upgrades — including glass walled cut-outs — and would mainly target minor hockey and old-timers tournaments. Estimated cost for the facelift: about $85 million.

• Development of a unique “urban festival site” at Northlands Park with the capacity to host mega-scale concerts, festivals and other major events for crowds of between 30,000 and 140,000 people. A large stage would be located on the north side of the current raceway site and would face an open grass-covered area allowing concertgoers to enjoy a more “organic” outdoor experience.

• Refurbishing the Expo Centre’s current Hall D into a 5,000-seat space for smaller concerts and sporting events. The reno plan includes replacing the hall’s current roof and raising it some 16 metres.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Live news feed on now: http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=104070&binId=1.1203428&playlistPageNum=1

Sounds like the Heritage Festival will be moving to Northlands as part of this plan. That's a pretty good idea, Hawrelak Park is nice but a huge logistical nightmare to move those thousands of people and in and out.

Sounds like it's also pretty much a given that horse racing is done after 2016.

K-Days Midway stays.

Festival Site and Hall D redo would be first on the timelines, Coliseum in 2018 after current commitments have completed.

 

[Daveography]

I guess the project title should have been "Northlands Vision 2020"

Anyhoo, there's also a survey:
http://www.northlands.com/vision2020/survey/

 

[Daveography]

Neighbours happy Edmonton Northlands site has a new plan
Neighbours and the local councillor are greeting the Northlands’ plan for a major overhaul with cautious optimism

Northlands’s plan revealed last week proposes to turn Rexall Place into a seven-sheet ice arena and create a new concert hall in the Expo Centre. It also proposes a massive outdoor concert space built where the Northlands Park racetrack now stands that would hold as many as 140,000 people for concerts.

Coun. Tony Caterina, who represents the area, said mostly people are just pleased to see the site won’t sit empty.

“Almost from day one when the new arena downtown was announced, most of the community felt like something was being taken away from them,” he said. “Having an empty site of 160 acres with nothing on it, I think everyone can imagine what that would have looked like

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

Some more renders and details of the Vision 2020 plan.

Source: http://www.northlands.com/vision2020/retail-development/

 

[Daveography]

Higher-res renders of the urban festival site; source: http://www.northlands.com/vision2020/urban-festival-site/

 

[Daveography]

Higher-res renders of Hall D redo; source: http://www.northlands.com/vision2020/a-new-hall-d/

 

[archited]

What a schizophrenic assemblage of concepts! -- only two renderings even begin to titillate -- those being depictions of the bridge over Alberta Avenue with the two high-rise buildings in the mix. Even they could show a smarter design for what would be a large wind-blown square and a need for a much better connection to the community along the avenue, east and west. Everything else -- meh!… a boring monolog.

 

[Daveography]

Northlands reno would bring up to $1 billion to Alberta economy: study
Artistic renderings gave Edmonton residents a glimpse last week into what the future of Northlands might look like. Now the organization is answering those demanding “show me the money.”

An economic impact study done by Edmonton firm Nichols Applied Management and released Friday suggests the province would see between $680 million and $1 billion of benefit in the next 20 years, a third of which would be seen in the Edmonton area, if the Vision 2020 plan comes to fruition.

“We’re looking at an average of $34 to $50 million in provincial economic impact every year for the next 20 years,” said Northlands CEO Tim Reid. “A large portion of that will be realized through local construction costs over the next four years — right when we need it most.”

The report says the construction would add from 3,100 to 4,000 temporary jobs and then another 750 permanent full-time positions in the new amenities.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[archited]

@Daveography -- I read the Journal article a few days ago that quoted the study that purported the economic benefits. If you break down the numbers, $1 billion over 20 years is $50 million per year and so Edmonton (and area), according to the study, would receive about 1/3 of that benefit -- just shy of $17 million. I can see that. The estimated cost for the build-out of the initial scheme (not including these later renderings) was alleged to have been some $250 million (a number that I believe is woefully low -- more like $400 million, if the end result is expected to be true to the renderings provided and, again, just those renderings that showed retrofit to the erstwhile Coliseum). So let's assume that the cost is half-way in between -- say $375 million. That would be a direct economic benefit to Edmonton (and area) and isn't that number a little better than 1/3 of a billion dollars? As for $667 million in accrued benefit to the rest of the province, I don't see where that would come from other than a trade-off for venues that Northlands already provides -- gambling, horse racing, agricultural shows, etc., all of which are in jeopardy. Someone or some group is trying really hard to foist this on the Edmonton public as the "best that we can come up with." Do you really think that this is a "best" solution?

 

[bennessb]

(sidenote: the figures in the rodeo rendering are incredible.)

 

[Daveography]

Councillor says land sales, residential condos could help fund Edmonton Northlands vision
Land sales or 99-year lease agreements for residential condos at the south end of the Northlands campus could help fund its ambitious redevelopment scheme, says Coun. Tony Caterina.

Northlands Vision 2020, set to be presented to council Tuesday, identifies the southwest corner of the 64-hectare site as a prime location for residential development and developers are just waiting for council’s buy-in to seek a deal, said Caterina. The land is just north of Borden Park, adjacent to the new East Edmonton Health Clinic and within walking distance of a Save-On-Foods and Stadium LRT station.

“Up until now, it’s been viewed as you have Rexall Place, Expo Centre and the race track. Three things. It’s 160 acres, you don’t have just three things,” said Caterina, who sits on the Northlands board and is city councillor for the area. The value of the land hasn’t been published yet, but he expects estimates to be released Tuesday.

“It’s quite valuable,” said Caterina. “Hoteliers, private developers for commercial, retail, entertainment, they’re now all trying to jump on it because they see the value in where it is located.”

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Northlands wants $48.2 million loan from City of Edmonton forgiven
Northlands will ask city council Tuesday to forgive its $48.2-million loan.

The city provided the loan in 2010 to build the Expo Centre, but Northlands CEO Tim Reid said Monday the organization took the loan in a much different business environment than exists today.

“We were in place where we didn’t have a downtown arena opening up and our business model has been very, very sound," he said.

Reid said once Rogers Place opens, Northlands' concert revenue will dry up and the organization won’t have the revenue to pay the loan.

“We are very concerned about what the bottom line is and our ability to pay back that loan in 2017,” he said. “[The city and Northlands] should have had this conversation a while ago, as partners on that loan, but we didn’t.”

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[bennessb]

whoa.

 

[Daveography]

@bennessb Well, the city is at least partially responsible for forcing Northlands to rethink their entire raison d'etre...