What Would You Do With Rexall Place? – Sponsored

A fundamental rule of real estate is supply and demand – and with 2 arenas and only 1 NHL team, some hard decisions will have to be made regarding the future of Rexall Place. Other Canadian cities have gone through similar decisions in the last 20 years; some cities have kept the arena for other events (PNE in Vancouver), others have been transformed into other useable space (Montreal, Toronto), and 1 was torn down altogether, and rebuilt as something different(Winnipeg).
Over the past year the Northlands Arena Strategy Committee was created to reach out to the people of Edmonton and ask what they would like to see happen. The resulting options were narrowed down to 4 predictable options:
1 – Keep the arena ‘as is’ and compete with the new arena for every non NHL and WHL event,
2 – Reduce the seating of the building for more mid and small range events,
3 – Repurpose it to a different concept altogether as would be best utilized in the community, and
4 – Knock it Down
The summary of the report findings can be found here.
It would be wise for whomever makes the final decision to look at the recent arena changeovers in the other Canadian cities for guidance. Granted, the Coliseum does not have quite the same historic significance as the Forum or Maple Leaf Gardens, but it certainly has more than the PNE in Vancouver or the old Winnipeg Arena. It can be argued that the area is ….unique as far as usability. It’s attached to a fairly busy Northlands complex that does a lot of business, but is not located in a prime area of town. It has LRT and a bus station attached to it, but is right beside a commercial/industrial area to the west and hotel/bar/lounge/liquor store/vacant land to the East.
So…what would I do with Rexall Place? Tough call. I am going to go through the process of elimination on this one.
ELIMINATED – Keep arena ‘as is’ – I definitely wouldn’t keep the building as is and try to compete with Rogers Place. I cannot see a situation where they can compete for big ticket events to fill the void left by NHL/WHL/lacrosse/most concerts AND be able to make any financial sense of it.
ELIMINATED – Knock it Down – I wouldn’t knock it down either. It is still a serviceable building as far as I know and it is not incredibly old. Plus – I can’t see a viable option for the land once the building is knocked down. Would it be commercial buildings or residential? Who would buy an apartment/condo/home on that land? Not me.
That leaves 2 viable options in my eyes – either reduce the seating and go for more mid range events, or re-purpose it. This reminds me of my high school multiple exam tests where 2 of the options were obviously incorrect and then 2 were very good options. I can still see in bold print to pick the best answer, not just the correct one.
I think the committee’s efforts should go into seeing if and how they could fill the arena up if they were to shrink the capacity down in half and then have other full time tenants in the extra space. A dual purpose facility that could be both an entertainment venue at night and a business area during the day might allow both steady income and sporadic event income to make it work financially.
Re-purposing the facility to something else could also be a viable option – as a community/health hub, private business, commercial area, or a variety of other mixed uses that could be a great benefit to the local community. Back filling in some of the parking with a new commercial building could also help with financial viability as well.
Full disclosure – I am certainly not an expert on the ins and outs of the building, Northlands’ relationship with the city, or any of the other intricacies that would impact what the final decision will be. I am just a lifelong hockey fan (that has gone to that rink hundreds of times)who has a background in real estate and (dare I say it) some common sense, and I want as much positive to come from this transition as possible.
What would you like to see done with Rexall Place? Let me know!