$170M private partner agreement to help fund Saskatoon’s arena under review

The City of Saskatoon is “taking a breath” to re-evaluate its tentative agreement with the American company OVG360, a key funder for the city’s upcoming arena.

The city’s taking “a wait and see approach here with regards to where things go with the trade war, tariffs and whether that will have an impact on the agreement,” said Dan Willems, director of Technical Services for the City of Saskatoon.

In the original tentative agreement, drafted in the summer of 2024, the company agreed to manage the facility and help fund the project to the tune of $170 million throughout the 25-year agreement.

However hefty the price tag hanging in the balance may be, the city says this pause on the agreement shouldn’t affect the arena’s overall timeline.

“We know it’s going to take several years before the funding plan comes together, with support from other orders of government,” said Willems. “It’s not likely to impact the overall schedule for the arena. We have no set schedule yet because we don’t have a funding plan assembled.”

Although projected to take several years to complete, the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District is happy to hear everything is on track.

“Part of the reason why (businesses) are renewing their leases, are investing more, is because of that vision of what the downtown is going to look like,” said Shawna Nelson, executive director of the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District.

Nelson remains a big advocate for revitalizing the city’s downtown core and hopes the impacts from south of the border don’t slow other upcoming projects, so the city can continue moving forward on its promises.

“If you take a look at the City Centre Development Plan, that’s really going to be something that revitalizes our downtown, giving confidence to our business owners and property owners to continue with what they were seeing as a long-term vision,” added Nelson.

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