Simon O'Byrne, Stantec Senior Vice President, Community Development
Simon O’Byrne, senior vice president at Stantec, says evolutions of a downtown is the story of the past, where they are at today and – where his expertise comes in – where they will be tomorrow. He says the downtown of any city has huge shape and influence in how we perceive the city to be doing so if the downtown is successful, we feel the rest of the city and region is doing well.
“I think one of the things COVID has really revealed for us is that downtowns are not just about businesses anymore or maybe just about retail. They also have to be about how do we add more amenities in the downtown, how do we put more people in the downtown and maybe in the past they were much more about weighted towards business and I think tomorrow its more balance between housing and more businesses so what are things we could put in the downtown that are going to amenitize the downtown and put things there that will create excitement, create enthusiasm in terms of the trajectory of the downtown.”
He says it is also signals to the real estate industry that this is where they want to invest.
Russ Marcoux was in attendance at last night’s information session in Saskatoon and says he’s totally in favour of the project. The former CEO and president of Yanke Group of Companies was one of about 120 people attending last night’s information session on a possible Downtown Event and Entertainment District.
And attendees were coming from all corners of the city as well as the bedroom communities that surround Saskatoon to get more information.
Saskatoon resident Keith Kratchmer says he wanted to see what it would look like in comparison to other cities, and he thinks Saskatoon needs a new arena and the downtown is the most logical place.
Jim Hodges, Owner at Crosstown Entertainment & Roadside Attractions says he’s been involved since the idea blossomed and just wants to keep up with how the development could move forward.
“As a city we’re always faced with how to advance the city as far as development is concerned. And when we have to renew different facilities that have gotten old,
gotten less able to facilitate what we want to do in the future, we’re faced with this situation.”
Stantec has partnered with HOK and LMN, who have experience in similar projects including the Calgary BMO Centre Expansion, the Seattle Convention Centre and Rogers Place and Edmonton’s ICE District. Planning continues toward a more detailed design, construction procurement model and project scope, scheduled for discussion late summer and fall.
In December, Saskatoon city council unanimously approved spending an additional $17 million to buy three properties near the site of a proposed event centre downtown. Council previously approved $25 million to buy the north parking lot of Midtown shopping centre as the future home of the city’s new arena and entertainment district.
