Success of downtown arenas can be duplicated
Posted Jun 9, 2010 03:35:12 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Downtown arenas can have a major impact on the local economy and can also be considered a sign that a city is serious about revitalization.
That’s been the experience just down the 401 in London, where the John Labatt Centre has played a tremendous role in transforming the core. Just ask city councillor Cheryl Miller, who says the area around the JLC now has a vibrant nightlife and she credits the arena for everything from attracting people to attracting new business, including two residential towers. The new apartments provide 240 units in the downtown and Vic Cote, London’s General Manager of Planning and Development at the time the JLC was built, says the units were expected to be fully leased within a year but were instead gobbled up in only a third of that time. Both Cote and Miller speak of a dramatically different downtown since the JLC opened in 2002.
Miller tells 570 News the arena was an election issue in London and says every critic of the proposal at the time is now eating their words. She says before the JLC, you “could have shot a cannon down King Street” and not hit a soul. Today, Miller says people can’t get enough of London’s downtown, with restaurants that are routinely booked every Friday and Saturday night. Her enthusiasm is supported by Cote, who says the arena introduced a whole new group of people back into the downtown. In the eight years since its opening, Cote says the JLC has helped attract $100-million worth of private sector development in the immediate area.
Miller credits the JLC with changing the whole direction in London, calling it “the catalyst that cracked the egg of decay and ruin” in the downtown. She speaks of buildings that were once boarded up and are now thriving as restaurants, rooftop patios and a new jazz club. When hockey is not being played, Miller says downtown London is “festival city.” Again, this is supported by Cote, who says of the 700,000 people that visit the JLC every year, only one third of that audience is there for hockey. The JLC has surpassed the 5-million mark in overall attendance since it first opened and Cote says a large part of that is due to London’s location. He calls it a desirable destination in southern Ontario for performers looking for a stopover between Toronto and Detroit. Many, Cote says, will play three Ontario shows per tour — Toronto, Ottawa and, most often, London. Cote gives his city the edge over Hamilton because he says London offers more outside the JLC in terms of hotels and other entertainment.
Does this mean the success of a downtown arena can be duplicated in other cities? Miller thinks so. She says if a city wants investors to believe in its downtown, the city has to show confidence in it as well. And she thinks Kitchener has the stuff to make it a success. Miller says Kitchener could do “an excellent job” of building a downtown arena and revitalizing its core in the process. Cote is a little more cautious but admits the recipe has proven itself time and again. He warns, though, that hockey alone will not yield an operating profit. It’s the other entertainment and conferences that will make or break the venue, according to Cote.
Would a downtown arena fly in Kitchener? That’s what we’ll examine in Part 4 of our series tomorrow.
