Details emerge on Sudbury's new arts and sports centers: both projects worth a minimum of $140 million plus.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: NEWS

A pair of city-driven capital projects worth at least $140 million are beginning to crystallize on Sudbury's horizon, with the proposed performing arts centre and multi-use recreational complex moving closer to reality.

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Preliminary plans have been drawn up for both in anticipation of calculating construction and operational costs in order to ready the two projects for presentation to the city council in the fall. If approved, funding discussions will begin and work will progress.

Due to be located downtown on the corner of Paris and Van Horne, the arts centre is projected to be an 1,800-seat, 85,000-square-foot space. It will feature a main hall, a secondary hall, a large outer lobby as well as any number of interior spaces for offices and rooms for local arts organizations.

The centre is now viewed not only as a standalone effort, but as the nucleus in the creation of an entire arts district. This means that several adjoining blocks will need to be rejuvenated and promoted as a prime location for culturally-focused businesses. Project organizers have already identified several items, including improvement of the Brady Street underpass and various faltering store fronts along Elgin Street.

After five years, the centre could potentially create up to $12.6 million in annual local benefits, as well as 1,000-person-years of employment.

Mark Simeoni, a senior planner with the City of Greater Sudbury, acknowledges there are concerns that the facility may well draw attention away from the adjoining Sudbury Theatre Centre. Officials from the STC have agreed that they'd prefer the arts centre to be closer rather than further away, he says.

"How does it fit into the fibre of the community without ruining it? We're not there yet; we're still thinking on it."

The re-imagining of that portion of the downtown as a cluster is key to the eventual success of such a facility, he says. Ticket sales alone are not a sufficiently strong foundation for its economic viability, it would need to draw and feed from the proposed arts district.

As a smaller venue than the Sudbury Arena, but larger than the Laurentian University's Fraser Auditorium, its economic health will not be built upon tourism prospects, says Rob Skelly, city director of tourism. Rather, it would require a strong base of local support to thrive.

Even if the project were to be approved by city council in the fall, the project would require five or six years to come to...