Last week, the city’s arena committee heard presentations on possible locations for a new arena in North Bay. Two of the 5 locations are well known: behind Memorial Gardens and at the Omischl Sports Complex but details on 3 other proposals were presented to the committee. They were from Pinewood Park Development, The Near North District School Board and Nipissing University. On Monday, Pinewood Park Development issued a release on their proposal. Arena committee chair Mark King says the next committee meeting is next Wednesday. The release follows:

The proponents of the Pinewood Park Drive Inc. arena proposal want to clarify benefits exclusive to their offering, and they are highlighting 4 key benefits to the city.

The plan for the city’s new arena to be built on Pinewood Park Drive has some things that no other proposal can offer, clearly seen in a unique combination of 4 key strengths:

We’re offering free land for the project, with a guarantee of new businesses and shopping/retail/dining opportunities on surrounding land for the citizens of North Bay – these expressions of interest will be apparent or our deal will be withdrawn.

The investment we pledge to attract will offset the cost of the arena by generating up to an expected $900,000 a year in new commercial tax revenue, when the development occurs. That means the cost of the area is recouped in a generation. No other plan can offer this.You tell us what development you want, and we’ll go after it. We provide a commitment to go after and seek out the types of business and development that a majority of the community supports.

We offer investment in the south end of the community, supportive and adjacent to Ferris. This may not be located on Lakeshore Drive, but it will drive traffic like nothing else that is being proposed.

“Our option is the only one that brings a new arena, along with a commitment to bring you the new restaurants, shopping and other development the community has been wishing for,” says proponent Renzo Silveri.

“Let me be very clear; what we are saying is that if the new arena costs $25 million, we will bring you expressions of interest from new business investors worth $25 million. If the arena costs $30 million we will bring expressions of interest of $30 million. We plan to turn those expressions of interest into agreements, the clearest possible indicator of development,” he explains.

“We need to clarify costs for every plan on the table. Some people ask about costs on top of the arena itself. In our case, our proposal would require $500,000 in servicing – basically water and sewer pipes. What people need to understand is that there could be costs like this with virtually every other proposal as well. If Memorial Gardens was chosen, there could be costs for a new entrance to access the area off of Fisher to try to handle the apparent traffic nightmare. If Omischl Park is selected and the geotechnical results come back negative, there will be servicing costs there as well, and they would very likely be higher than the cost to service our location,” says Jesse Shortt, also a proponent in the development proposal.

“But we offer more than a new arena along with sound financial return on investment, we offer the chance for people to tell us what they want to see built next to the new arena” he adds.

“In addition to the better part of a million dollars of new annual tax revenue to the city, we’re excited to finally secure the new types of business our citizens have been asking for. We plan to create a survey platform that would ask people what do they want to see. Do you want new shopping opportunities? What restaurants or entertainment options would you like to see? We want the community to grow, and that’s why we are offering the arena land for free – because we already have had initial interest in the surrounding property, and we will seek out investment based on community input. We’ve actually already been approached by citizens a few times asking for Burger King and Starbucks, among other things,” adds Shortt.

“When our proposal became public, we got some great feedback from the community. The one comment that really hit home was when a gentleman pointed out that the city had just spent over $20 million dollars running service out along Lakeshore Drive to Pinewood Park Drive. We went through all that cost and so many delays on the project, he said it only made sense for all of that work to be put to good use. I had to agree with him,” says Shortt.

“It’s pretty simple when you boil it all down. You get free land for the arena, the development around that arena pays for the new complex, the community gets to tell us what development they want to see, and this is Ferris friendly and supports the south end of the city,” says Shortt in summarizing the plan.

“We believe in building the community, while building an arena, and building for the future all at once – no one else and no other plan is offering you that combination,” concludes Silveri.