The battle for the location of the proposed event centre continued but a senior director with CEI Architecture says there’s only two real contenders.
The city held its second open house for the proposed event centre at the Da Vinci Centre on Wednesday. More than 100 people showed up and voiced their concerns and opinions on where the event centre should be located.
The three options are Innova Park, downtown Port Arthur and near the Thunder Bay International Airport.
But choosing from three sites may soon change.
Conrad Boychuk, a senior director with CEI Architecture, said Innova Park and downtown Port Arthur would get the most attention and added they are really the only two contenders.
“The airport site is a site that cannot be purchased it can only be leased,” Boychuk said. “There’s a reasonable amount of real estate that would be required at that site. I also think because of access issues I’d have to say Innova Park and the downtown site continue to be the ones that are going to get out attention from this point on.”
Boychuk said he was hesitant to eliminate the airport site from the list because he wanted to give residents a broad range of options.
Throughout the second open house, Innova Park and downtown Port Arthur remained the two most popular spots.
Todd Randall wanted the event centre in downtown Port Arthur because it complimented the waterfront. He said he knows there are issues around parking but he felt that those concerns can be worked on.
“I don’t know why we have to replicate mistakes we have been making for decades,” Randall said. “In both Thunder Bay and other cities, I think this is an opportunity to replicate the (Fort William Gardens) on the other side and has been very successful.”
Randall said most people have become too dependent on their vehicles but in the future people will be driving less. Having the facilities connected through transit as well as utilizing bike lanes will help make it more viable, he said.
He added that he came to the presentation to give his opinion as well as hear the positives about the other locations.
Ryan Maclaurin also wanted the event centre in Port Arthur and said it made the most sense with what is already established.
“I think it will have better spin offs if you want to host trade shows events and conferences,” Maclaurin said. “When people spill out there’s restaurants and everything is in an attractive part of town. If you were to put something like this out in Innova Park you’re going to have to bus people around if you are going to conventions. You can do it all in a pedestrian friendly kind of way.”
He said the parking issue can be solved by creating additional parkades and added he would be willing to walk three blocks to go to the event centre.
But Fran Loney said that’s too far for her and that’s the reason why she favourited the Innova Park location.
Lonely, who described herself as an “old fogey”, said convenience matter the most for her and many other seniors in town. She said she drove down to the potential site and just thought it was a bad idea.
“It just makes plain sense to have it at Innova Park,” Lonely said. “When you are going to an event, you either dine before you go or you dine after you go. It’s as simple as that. We have an aging population in Thunder Bay and I’m not the only one who thinks three blocks is hard.”
Lonely has attended the presentations before and she said she wanted to learn as much as possible about the issue. She said it’s her tax dollars at stake so she wanted to keep an open mind about where the location should go.
Art Stephens agreed that the event centre should be at Innova Park because it was the only location with enough parking.
“It’s ok to say that it won’t hurt to have people walk a few blocks but they won’t,” Stephens said. “If it was a big enough event I would but those normal regular hockey games maybe I will go or maybe I won’t. Parking is the sort of thing that could make the difference.”
Stephens said most people travel in their cars anyway so the issue about having no restaurants located near Innova Park didn’t hold up well.
