Canadian cities embrace the ‘arena district’

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When Copps Coliseum opened 40 years ago, Hamilton, Ont., was better known for its gritty steel plants and faded core than its more genteel identity as home of McMaster University.

Decades later, an explosion of luxe condos, brew pubs and galleries in and around downtown is washing the grit off historic buildings and revitalizing much of the city its residents still affectionately call the Hammer.

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The former Copps arena, now called FirstOntario Centre, is undergoing a renaissance of its own, one that will extend to its whole neighbourhood.

The new $290 million, 18,000-seat Hamilton arena re-opens in December, part of a larger downtown revitalization initiative known as “The Commons,” which includes upgrades to the nearby convention centre, Art Gallery of Hamilton and concert hall facilities.

The goal: To transform Hamilton’s downtown into an entertainment and cultural hub.

“We think it’s going to have a huge benefit to the city, surrounding core and surrounding Golden Horseshoe area. The arena can be life changing for downtown Hamilton and the local community,” said Tom Pistore, president of Oak View Group Canada (OVG), who is working with Hamilton City Hall and the Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG), the private-sector group managing the wider project.

They are “rejuvenating an entire city district into an attraction and something greater than just an arena,” with new residences, hotels, food and beverage, and commercial spaces.

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Hamilton, an hour’s drive west of Toronto, is one of multiple Canadian cities creating such arena districts; a string of new, large arenas and stadiums are also being built or rebuilt in Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa, with ambitions extending beyond just the arenas themselves.

For Hamilton, the new arena district is expected to be an economic catalyst, promising long-term employment opportunities, increased tourism, and tax revenue growth. It comes amid a population surge for the city, with an increase of over 32,000 residents between 2016 and 2021, to nearly 570,000 Hamiltonians.

The renovated arena will serve as a music-first venue, but also host sporting events, trade shows and community events. It is hoped it will host some 125 events annually, attracting visitors from across the region. The increase in foot traffic is expected to boost local businesses, restaurants and hotels.

“Generally, what happens, is the arena becomes the first tier in the engine to the development of the surrounding areas. And so we’re happy to go first and have others follow us,” said Pistore.

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It’s the seventh venue development project for Oak View, and the largest privately funded arena built in Canadian history. Its features are expected to include artist lounges, enhanced acoustics and sightlines, and premium hospitality spaces — which Pistore said did not exist until recently.

“So typically, a venue older than 20 years would be hosting their music artists and live acts in the locker rooms. But now we have the ability to host them in their own lounges,” he said.

Such amenities will “attract top flight global shows across multiple genres to a global and world class venue.” Unlike home games for sports franchises, he said “the catchment area for music is really, really large” adding that “music doesn’t have the regional affinity that maybe sports teams might have, necessarily, and so that whatever your genre is, of your artist, music, comedy or other family show, if it’s a show that’s intriguing and compelling, it certainly draws from a very wide area.”

Live Nation is playing a significant role in the new Hamilton arena project as a key booking partner for Oak View Group. The entertainment giant has committed to bring concerts and other live events to Hamilton, leveraging their expertise to make the new state-of-the-art venue more competitive in attracting top-tier events and contributing to driving economic impact for the business community through event bookings.

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By transferring the responsibility for operating and maintaining the facility to HUPEG, taxpayers are anticipated to save $150-million over 30 years. This arrangement eliminates city subsidies, transfers operational costs to private investors, and includes significant venue upgrades, all while the city retains ownership of the facilities. Previously, the management of these venues by the city resulted in annual losses of over $5 million.

New residential projects are estimated to bring an increase of more than $100 million in tax revenue.

Pistore was part of the team involved in developing Air Canada Centre and BMO Field in downtown Toronto, and UBS Arena in New York. Various city arena plans have been decades in the making, he noted, “and Canada seems to now be catching up, which is great.”

For one, developers see other markets with multiple major venues — Los Angeles has five, New York has four. Given the demographic growth of greater Toronto, Hamilton and the Golden Horseshoe, there’s a need to accommodate simultaneous games and concerts. “We feel underserved,” Pistore told the Post.

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York University marketing instructor Vijay Setlur, who has an expertise in sport business, argues many arenas “were well beyond their shelf life in terms of being facilities that can handle professional sports in the modern era.” Newer facilities draw more events “and it makes the city more appealing in terms of a place to live, a place to work, a place to play.”

New arenas help create “a city’s brand as a place,” he said.

Something greater than just an arena

That’s why cities bid for major events like the World Cup or the Olympics, “because they’re trying to build their brand as a place, because having a strong brand as a place will attract economic development and workers and tourists and foreign direct investment and so on.”

He points to Indianapolis, not a large-size tourism draw on its own, “but because they have such a long history of staging amateur, collegiate and international sporting events, they’re known to Americans as a sports city.”

Setlur worked with the Hamilton Sports Group in 2023 on the Grey Cup organizing committee. “So we did some work in downtown Hamilton along James Street, which is a main road that’s very close to the arena there. And there already were issues in downtown with homeless people and areas that, you know, are a little bit blighted and so on.”

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“It’s almost like, downtown needs a shot in the arm.”

That’s what is happening in Edmonton.

Edmonton Ice District’s centrepiece is the $480 million Rogers Place, completed in 2018. It is not just the home of the NHL’s Oilers, but hosted A-list acts as Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Coldplay and Drake. The district boasts more than 120,000 square metres of office space. Reports say that last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs netted the downtown core an additional $179 million in revenue, and contributed to the Oilers’ rise in valuation to $1.85 billion — the seventh in the NHL — versus 20 years ago, when it was valued at $91 million, the lowest in the NHL.

In addition to current hotels, a community centre, plaza, casino and residences, many more homes and commercial spaces are in the pipe that will make it reportedly Canada’s largest mixed-use and entertainment district.

Rebecca Reid, director of Water Warriors, a street outreach organization, sees a different side. The development displaced Boyle Street Community Services, leaving 500 homeless people in limbo. Now, rather than a single space for social services, the unhoused move around the city for various resources, she said, and end up in malls and transit stations to keep warm. Developers and the province, she said, “should have had alternate resources for the ones that were taken away from the community.”

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Calgary will also see a major new downtown Culture and Entertainment District, with an $800 million arena to be completed in the next two years that will feature 18,000 seats, replacing the 41-year-old Saddledome. The city is covering about $530 million for the arena. The project, complemented by other facilities, will include a $52 million community rink, a $35 million parkade and a $29 million outdoor community event plaza

The Alberta government will spend some $350 million for public infrastructure improvements.

Meanwhile, the city of Ottawa announced plans last September for a new downtown arena for the Ottawa Senators, in addition to 6,000 housing units nearby. The Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC) have reached an agreement in principle for the development of a new arena and entertainment district at LeBreton Flats. The Senators will purchase a 10-acre parcel of land from the NCC, located about 1.5 kilometres west of Parliament Hill.

And finally, the Toronto suburb of North York will see an open-air concert venue called Rogers Stadium, with a capacity of 50,000, this summer at the former Downsview Airport. Planned for a five-year operation, it is part of a larger redevelopment project for the area now known as YZD, including housing units for 55,000 residents.

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Planners say the project will inject $80 to $100 million into the economy, although the local councillor, James Pasternak, says the community is concerned about noise, increased crime, traffic congestion, and absence of residents’ input. “It appears as if it there’s been comparatively little in terms of public consultation,” said Pasternak.

In Hamilton, the mayor is excited about the FirstOntario Centre renovations and their impact.

“I guess it’s summed up in one word, which is, ‘thrilled.’ I think this is going to be spectacular for the City of Hamilton,” Mayor Andrea Horwath told the Post.

“The scale, the upgrade, is going to be magnificent,” of what she referred to as “the jewel in the crown of a bunch of things that are happening downtown.”

On its own, the city’s financial capacity would have never allowed for this kind of growth, she said, especially with “real problems,” including “the basics, like the important infrastructure, water, wastewater and huge roadways.”

With Live Nation’s involvement, she foresees “some pretty good acts” in the city, drawing people from the broader area, including across the U.S. border in Buffalo, about an hour to the south.

“It’s really the next iteration of the City of Hamilton, and it’s an exciting time to be mayor. There are going to be definite positive economic outcomes. The project buzz is happening,” Horwath said.

“We already have a quite a restaurant scene, in our downtown. This will only amplify where some of our business districts have begun to blossom, and this will only facilitate that even more.”

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