The Calgary events centre project has been several years in the making and goodness, has it been a ride. Months ago we thought we were well on our way to seeing shovels in the ground and the beginnings of a new Calgary arena on the way, and then in April, the city shocked everyone when they announced that their plans had gone cold.
Citing budget concerns, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) and the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation announced that they were taking a beat in hopes that they would be able to renegotiate, and renegotiate they did! In fact, the CMLC is no longer the project manager and that’s not all that has been switched up.
This week, they actually signed off on a series of changes, established a new budget, released a new rendering of the facility (which can be seen above) and they even chose a new project manager.
According to newly released documents, the Calgary events centre now has an estimated price tag of $608.5 million which is actually $58 million higher than what was agreed upon back in 2019.
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Below is the complete breakdown:
As you can see, the responsibility for footing this astronomical bill will be that of the CSEC who will contribute $321 million and the City of Calgary which will shell out $287.5 million.
Now, this may seem like a whole lot of cash (because it is), but the COC said that it was for the best, writing in a press release that “the agreed-to approach to building the Event Centre further lowers The City’s risk, reinforces its commitment to the District, and ensures that public money is used for public benefit, which will result in a facility built that Calgarians can be proud of,” but we all know that depends on how the project turns out.
