Council has five locations to look at for proposed multiplex

Narrowing down a site location for a proposed new multiplex facility won’t be easy, but Thunder Bay city council will take a close look at five on Monday night.

City manager Tim Commisso said on Thursday administration wants input on the locations, which include the Water Street bus terminal, Innova Park, Pool 6, Port Arthur Arena and the only non city-owned land to make the cut, property owned by the Thunder Bay International Airports Authority.

Commisso said further public consultation will be held once a favoured site is chosen for the proposed 6,500-seat venue, which will also include a convention centre space should council ultimately decide to build the facility.


“What the report will really do is outline some preliminary options and preliminary configuration for the events centre,” Commisso said, stressing council won’t be approving construction or giving the go-ahead anytime soon.

“We do have a Phase 2 feasibility study ahead of us. What we wanted to do in the time that we had while we were awaiting an announcement by FedNor was really to try to do some of the background work. We’ve looked at five sites. We’ve also looked at some configuration options and we’ve tried to through a template place the potential for a facility to be located on those five options.”


Some are obviously better than others, he added, noting costs ranging from $78.2 million for one of three downtown north core options, to a high of $128.2 million for the Pool 6 site, which would require heavy infrastructure investments for parking and road construction and a significant amount of site clean-up. 

The Fort William Gardens site, deemed too small, and a Simpson Street location favoured by Mayor Keith Hobbs, has been ruled out.

The facility itself is estimated at $62.5 to $68 million, with a convention centre expected to run $11.1 million in all but one option, where the cost drops to $4.1 million.

Though Commisso is not making any recommendations to council, the report suggests a couple of reasons why the downtown waterfront location might be favoured. First the Northern Ontario Growth Plan has made it clear funding priority will be given to projects that strengthen community cores. Second, it’s what’s worked best in other communities they’ve looked at, including, Duluth, Sault Ste. Marie and Abbotsford, B.C.

Duluth in particular was of interest, as the newly refurbished DECC is expected to attract 40,000 visitors to the Minnesota city, worth $30 million to the local economy.

“All of the sites we have identified are sites that can accommodate an events centre. But decisions haven’t been made. Each of them has advantages and disadvantages. What we wanted to do in the report is at least list those,” Commisso said.

“We’ve identified 10 criteria or 10 considerations that we’ve looked at, trying to get a gauge on these sites. But we haven’t done what I would consider to be a detailed site evaluation because we really want to narrow the scope,” he said.

Couns. Larry Hebert and Andrew Foulds each have their own thoughts on where the complex should be.

Hebert favours Innova Park, while Foulds would prefer the downtown north core location.

“There’s no perfect site, unfortunately,” Hebert said. “I think all have some positives and some negatives. I think some have more negatives than others. Personally I favour the Innova Park site, but there are others as well.”

Advantages to his preferred site include room for possible future expansion and highway access, but the negatives include no existing transit routes, isolation and limited economic development impact.

Foulds, the Current River representative, said he likes the idea of an events centre appeals to him and many members of the public.

But he wants to make sure if the city does go ahead with the proposed project, it has to be done right.

“And location is really, really important. My No. 1 priority with location is that it has to be accessible and it has to be an economic driver. And in order to be both of those, you have to have good road access, but we also have to put it in a location where there are a lot of other things for people to do – restaurants, bars, stores.

“So my preference has always been in a core area. I think that the downtown Port Arthur core has been designated as our entertainment district, so for me it makes a lot of sense,” he said.

Advantages include price and parking availability, with disadvantages being the necessity of relocating the transit terminal and limited future expansion possibilities.

Council will be asked Monday night to approve a public consultation session and report back on it and their three preferred site possibilities by next month.