Shovels to break
ground in July
The
Whig-Standard
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 07:00
Local News - It won’t be long before
Kingston citizens see new development on the North Block.
Just minutes after council voted in favour of the arena that Mayor Harvey Rosen
made the cornerstone of his 2003 election campaign, Rosen was already planning
what would be on the site next.
“There will be a sign going up very soon announcing that this is the site of the
regional sports and entertainment centre,” an exultant Rosen said between
congratulatory handshakes from supporters of the project outside his office at
City Hall.
With the vote at council last night, only a few procedural hurdles remain
between now and heavy equipment rolling onto the site. The arena will be bounded
by Ontario, King and Barrack streets and Place D’Armes.
Chief among them is city site plan approval, which will show where the arena
will be located on the site, landscaping and other practical matters such as the
final finishes of the building.
But with builder EllisDon already having submitted drawings and models to the
city in support of its bid to build the project and staff having praised their
ideas and council having voted to accept them that is more a rote approval than
anything that is likely to prove contentious.
Rosen also said the contract to design and build the centre will be revisited
with representatives of the companies involved to see if there were any further
cost savings that could be found.
Doug Aris of Ellis Don, the Toronto-based company that will build the site, said
he expects to start digging on the site in mid-July and said the project should
be complete by the opening date that the city has set for Dec. 14, 2007.
Aris said last night that the schedule seemed realistic.
“We know that the final completion date is important to the hockey club and to
the citizens of Kingston,” he said following last night’s vote.
The company will bring in crews to do the work and will hire as many locals as
it can, he said.
It will be meeting with the city to work out the details of one of the largest
downtown construction projects in years.
Cynthia Beach, the city commissioner who brought the project through to
completion, said some work will begin before the first crane or backhoe appears
on the site.
The city has to bring some services , such as water and hydro, to the site and
have them ready for construction crews to hook into. It is a portion of the
project that will cost $2 million and Beach said that work will begin soon.
“We need to set up services, and we will be beginning with that,” she said
following last night’s meeting.