Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
Depends how important is it to the city to have the arena in East Village. Does the arena being there truly kickoff the prolonged revitalization of that area? Do they invest the costly amount of money into refurbishing the Saddledome, or build a smaller scale event centre instead to satisfy the Stampede? Or simple tear down dome, and have nothing at all since market is not big enough to have two competing venues? Would the revenue lost by not having the arena there be made up by alternative options?
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With the demise of the Corral, the city could use a 5-8k seat venue.
I'm skeptical the new arena will do much to 'anchor' the Rivers District...there's still a 350 meter wasteland between 9th and 12th avenue with a major barrier of the CP tracks.
We will still have an events district with a few tall condos, and a separate East Village District where the 'vibrancy' is on the north end near the river. While the library and NMC are decent daytime attractions, I'm not sure there is much to make that side feel like a comfortable gathering place or even pedestrian route after dark.
The plan really falls apart for me with the 'Riverfront Residential' area:
Really more of a 'railfront' area, and was also assuming the green line running immediately south of the CP tracks (perhaps serving as a decent buffer), but the current alignment for the green line is down 11th ave.
The parcel labeled Neighbourhood Centre is the ideal location for the arena (with outdoor concourses serving as pedestrian overpasses over the CP tracks.
Maybe you get another block or two of high density residential between 11th and 12th (as is currently the case with Arriva, Guardian, and Keynote) and medium density that is actually riverfront where the bus barns are (while filling in the Riverwalk gap).
I think this wold also help to spur redevelopment on the north side of 9th Ave