Scott Radley: How a renovated FirstOntario Centre might look
A couple weeks after the city agreed to a deal with a local consortium to renovate the downtown entertainment venues, we're now getting more of an idea of what an updated FirstOntario Centre could look like.
If the early plans come to fruition, the building is going to be essentially unrecognizable from the arena that opened in 1985 and has recently been described as tired.
It's like someone handing you a blank canvas and saying, Here, paint your perfect picture,'" says Jasper Kujavsky, a partner with the Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG) and director of the arena renovation project. But you don't have to build it out. It's already there."
Kujavsky's dream is to use the arena as a launching point to turn the corner of York Boulevard and Bay Street into a destination that needs neither the Boulevard nor the Street when you say it. Just York and Bay.
The York Boulevard activation is key," Kujavsky says.
That's fancy talk that means the York Boulevard side of the arena is going to get the most significant part of the makeover.
The interior stairs that currently run along that side of the building that deposit fans from the concourse onto York after events will be removed. Restaurants and shops will then be created in that space and extend the full length of the arena.
The entire north side is going to be built out as new retail space and a significant portion of it will be open 24-7," he says. It's part of the whole York and Bay District concept, the precinct concept, that we want to build."
The idea would be that when the arena isn't being used, these businesses will be open to the street. When there is an event, they'll be accessible from inside and could allow access right into the seating area.
Above them, the concourse will be extended out to the wall. And the existing restaurant - The Lounge - that's currently tucked away and easy to miss will be opened up.
Walk along the concourse to the Bay Street end of the rink (by the elevators) and there will be an open party zone overlooking the rink like the Flight Deck at Rogers Centre or the Stipley Bar at Tim Hortons Field.
A few more steps and down a level and you'll hit the main entrance that will still be off Bay.
It'll be jazzed up," Kujavsky says.
In the basement, there's a thought that the dressing rooms could be moved from the south side to the north side where there's currently wide open convention space that would allow for bigger team facilities. That would create usable public space on the south side or possibly even better rooms for visiting acts.
Meanwhile, there are parts of the arena that have been hidden from public view almost since the day it opened, including a street-level concourse that wraps around most of the building and is used primarily as storage. The plan is for it all to be back in play.
Thousands of square feet of unused space just waiting to be activated," he says. Most people have never been there."
On top of everything else, the lower bowl will be redone and a new curtain system will be installed above that should look vastly better than the hanging black drapes that currently block off the upper level when it's not needed. And a large video screen outside at York and Bay could create a smaller version of Jurassic Park in Toronto.
Of course, this is still in the planning stage and there remain plenty of unknowns. Among them, how many private boxes will be needed and where they'll be located. Not to mention how much this will all cost. It sounds expensive.
The consortium told the city it would spend around $50 million on the arena. Kujavsky says he hopes that's just a starting point.
What we've promised the city is a minimum and clearly we're going to deliver that," he says. We want to do more."
Back in 2016, before he was part of HUPEG, Kujavsky commissioned studies of the arena for possible renovations. One of those said a redo of the lower bowl and some other improvements would cost $68 million. His ideal plan would go a little beyond what was listed in that outline but a budget has not yet been finalized.
Because time has passed, the cost would be higher today so they'd have to build in financial escalators" to account for inflation.
Ah yes, escalators. Glad he mentioned that. The city just spent more than $4 million of tax dollars replacing a number that had been broken for years as well as putting in a new elevator. What happens to them?
The escalators stay," he laughs. We're building around them."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com