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A local architect is hoping to spur discussion about potential sites for a downtown arena in Saskatoon ahead of an update coming to city council on Monday on the search for a site.
Bertrand Bartake, an architect with Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture, put forward his own map with six highlighted sites that could potentially host a replacement for the ageing SaskTel Centre.
City council has endorsed the concept of a downtown arena, instructing city staff to explore the possibility of creating a downtown entertainment district — similar to the Ice district surrounding Edmonton’s Roger’s Place.
Bartake’s map includes sites that have already been bandied about in public discussion, as well as areas he believes would animate the downtown.
We're expecting to hear about the site for a new arena in @DTNYXE in the 1st quarter of this year. Over the next couple days I'll discuss 6 potential arena sites in the core of #yxe #YXEarena pic.twitter.com/bLbgzQNcuk
— Bertrand (@Bertrand_SK) January 20, 2020
The sites include the city yards in north downtown — both on the north and south side of 25th Street, the parking lot across 22nd Street from Midtown Plaza, the YMCA lot at the corner of 22nd Street and Idylwyld Drive, the current Toys R Us location and the area recently vacated by the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market in River Landing.
“There’s some obvious contenders for where a public building like this could go,” Bartake told 650 CKOM on Tuesday.
“I sort of cast the net wider and looked at the downtown as a whole.”
The eight-year veteran of the architecture industry focused on sites that were adjacent to other neighbourhoods, close to amenities such as retail and restaurants and those that would fit well with the city’s existing plans for bus rapid transit and protected cycling lanes.
He excluded sites that would involve cutting off road access to combine blocks or those that would involve demolishing large numbers of existing buildings.
Bartake has no affiliation with the City of Saskatoon, and noted bids for building a downtown arena would be dominated by national and international architecture firms.
Among the sites he mapped out, he believes there are three front-runners: The Midtown parking lot, the YMCA lot and the Toys R Us lot.
“My personal favourite is the Toys R Us site,” he said.
“It’s one of the closest sites to Broadway and Riversdale, and it’s also close to the existing bars downtown.”
He said he likes the idea of the arena being an “introduction” to the downtown for people travelling the Sid Buckwold Bridge, as well as those coming toward the core along 20th Street.
There’s been no indication Toys R Us or Midtown Plaza, which owns the land, are interested in relinquishing the plot, or how much it would cost the city to purchase the land.
Mayor expects updates on arena process soon
Mayor Charlie Clark spoke to the Brent Loucks Show on Tuesday morning, saying the arena discussion was progressing slower than he expected.
“It’s taking longer than I would have hoped to be able to bring out to the public the leading site, and to have the discussion about a winning site,” Clark said.
He noted the process is “sensitive” to landowners, but discussions are continuing with them to secure costs.
An update on the work being done is expected to be reported to city council at Monday’s meeting.
Consultants have estimated the cost of a new arena and convention centre at between $330-375 million.