Summary Cost Sharing Agreement for Kingsway Entertainment District Available on City Website

Following an update to Council last week, the City of Greater Sudbury has made available a summary of the Kingsway Entertainment District cost sharing agreement. The summary provides an overview of the agreement, which was negotiated over a period of several months between the partners involved in the development of the site.

“We are pleased to make a summary of this complex agreement available to all interested citizens,” said Ian Wood, Interim General Manager of Community Development. “The City’s primary interest in negotiating the agreement was ensuring value for money, protecting taxpayer dollars, and mitigating risk to the community and the organization.”

Some key elements associated with the cost sharing agreement include:

• Four partners are represented in the cost sharing agreement: the City of Greater Sudbury (responsible for the event centre), Gateway (responsible for the casino and restaurants), the hotel/conference centre (represented by the developer, Mr. Zulich), and the developer (responsible for the remaining lands).
   
• In recognition of the fact that there have been appeals on the rezoning of the properties, no major work will be conducted on the site until direction has been received through the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT) process. Planning work will continue so that this project is shovel-ready once the legal process has been completed.
   
• A clause allows the City to terminate the agreement without penalty at any time before the LPAT process has been completed.
   
• The agreement focuses particularly on the common areas/works and blasting. Each partner is responsible for the development of their own site, including buildings and parking lots.
   
• Site preparation costs, which include blasting and grading of the site, are allocated based on each partner’s property area.
   
• A single contract has been awarded for the blasting and grading. By tendering a single contract for site preparation there are benefits to all partners that include cost savings, simplification of site management issues, and a shared commitment to achieving the Detailed Integrated Site Design.
• The costs were negotiated based on benefit of different elements to each of the parties. For example:

1. The City is responsible for 28% of roadwork costs associated with the site’s development. The three other parties are responsible for the remaining 72%. Road works include all site servicing required for the properties, including water main, sanitary sewer, sidewalks, cycling infrastructure, and storm sewers.
    
2.  Festival Square is designed as a public space for all; as such, the City is responsible for the majority of costs associated with the development of the Square. By retaining the majority of the costs, the City will maintain full control of the design of the Square and the programming.
    
3. Costs to improve the intersection at the site are being borne 50% by the developer and 28% by the City. The remaining costs are shared between the hotel/conference centre and Gateway.    
    
4. The City is responsible for 56% of the site preparation and blasting, while Gateway and the hotel are responsible for the remaining 44% of costs. The cost allocation was determined based on property area for each partner, and the arena/event centre has the largest property on the site.

“The cost sharing agreement was an extremely complex undertaking for a transformational project,” continued Mr. Wood.  “All partners are working together and are committed to the successful completion of the project, as evidenced by the signing of the agreement. We look forward to continuing to provide updates to Council and the community in the coming months.”

The estimated opening date for the Arena/Event Centre is late 2021 or early 2022.

More information about the Kingsway Entertainment District is available at www.greatersudbury.ca/eventcentre.

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