I dont feel the view from the hill is that bad (plaza, commuinity arena). The SAM center and arts academy are rather boring and "un-activatable". Having the arena open to the N/W/E is 100% the best decision, you can never have all 4 sides useable. Development will happen, to expect it when shovels just hit the ground is unrealistic
I'm not expecting shovels, I'd just like for there to be some kind of something out there. I'm sure someone somewhere is working on something, and that is probably CSEC but I know from living in Edmonton when Rogers Place was announced along with it came announcements of all the other development in the Ice District. Now, it took a few years for that development to be completed but at least at the time they telegraphed what you had to look forward to.
The ice district is very much a "facade". It's attracted almost no investment, aside from what Katz has done himself. A horrible part of town, with a poor plan based entirely around an enclosed "LA Live" type plaza, next to a very busy 6 lane road. This has shown to be very problematic type of plan for a winter climate, and why large amounts of that plaza are unleased. Zero traffic on non gamedays. Hard to park, few residents nearby....was never going to work the way it was designed.
Okay, so you don't like the ice district, except that's not what I was saying. My point is after the arena announcement, we've gotten some significant hotel announcements, but I was just hoping we might start to see at least some teasing of what's to come (other than the hotels) around the arena. There needs to be something else there to get people to Stampede Trail on a non-event day, otherwise, we will just get our own ice district.
Rooftops need to be established first. I give it 3-5 years before we hear of any of those announcements.
I get what you are saying on the east side, but all things considered that's where I would prefer to see the loading docks and all the back of house type stuff. They are trying to pretty it up with the big pictures / murals, we will see if it gets VE'd out.
Well if they own the land and redevelop it, they get the value from the increase of their assets. CMLC is building the public infrastructure, and Truman is building the hotels so they get to capture the value of the revitalized space in higher rents and land prices. CSEC will get some lift in Flames franchise value from the new arena, but if they were more ambitious, they could capture even more value increases by developing assets nearby.
This is what everyone else has done and is doing, because revenue from those other assets does not have to be shared with the players as part of Hockey Related Revenue. As much as Murray likes the core of the team, he isn't going to give the players any more than he has to.
I know you're well informed so I'm genuinely curious for your insight. Why wait? Why not cash-in on the initial excitement about the arena? 3-5 years for any announcement means we're 5-8 before anything is realized. By that point the bloom is off the rose, but I guess it is maybe established... Still, I would think CSEC would do well to establish the area as part of people's "let's go out" routine.