City of Brantford Council unanimously voted to move forward with plans to build a new Sports and Entertainment Centre (SEC) during a Special Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.
The SEC is set to be a 5,300 fixed-seat venue that will be built beside the existing Civic Centre on Market Street South and will host Brantford Bulldogs home games as well as various sporting events, concerts, family shows, trade shows and conferences, Indigenous conferences and cultural celebrations, and local, regional, provincial, national and international events.
To kick off the meeting, Councillors heard from three delegations, Matt Alman, Mark Dremak and Kim Harrison.
Allman, who is fully supportive of the SEC, said it’s time for the people of Brantford to embrace change.
“I see this as an investment. It’s Brantford telling its citizens and businesses, ‘get ready, we’re growing up.’ …If we just heeded the concerns of people that didn’t want change in the city, those that want to keep everything the same because this version of the city is the city that they’re used to, if we cater to that thought process then we won’t really have any hope of growing from an economic standpoint,” he said.
Dremak and Harrison on the other hand, raised several concerns regarding the proposal including their frustration over the lack of public forums for discussion, fast tracking the SEC but not the new hospital, the timing, financial losses, the City’s ability to service debt and the lack of a written and signed contract from Michael Andlauer to keep the Bulldogs in Brantford long-term.
“I have to ask, why is the $140 million financing for this project and the fast-track timing not also being applied to our hospital? That hospital would serve 100 per cent of constituents versus the 5 per cent that can attend a hockey game,” said Dremak. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m a current Branford Bulldogs season ticket holder and I’m entirely in support of a new rink that is put in place by a well negotiated agreement with the team.”
It was later reiterated by several councillors, as well as City staff that council cannot build the hospital as it is the purview of the province.
During the evening’s discussion, Ron Bidulka, Managing Director of KKR, Joelle Daniels, Commissioner of Corporate Services and City Treasurer, and Nicole Wilmot, Chief Planner and Senior Director of Planning and Development, presented the plan to finance the SEC.
The three said that the plan is to finance the centre through a debenture of $140 million and that the debt servicing costs would not be paid by the taxpayers but instead, through various streams such as:
- Proceeds from the sale of the SEC’s naming rights and sponsorships
- Corporate and public fundraising campaigns
- Proceeds from the sale of City owned properties in the lower downtown area, (estimated between $5 million to $7 million)
- Contributions from prospective venue operating partners
- Utilizing the City’s portion of the City’s Municipal Accommodation Tax
- Redirecting the City’s previous commitment to the Wilfrid Laurier University mid-size performance theatre
- Incremental property taxes from development in the lower downtown ,and
- Allocation of proceeds from the sale of lands in the northern boundary (in the event development in the lower downtown area is slower than anticipated.)
With approval of the SEC would also come the creation of an entertainment district in the lower downtown area.
Speaking to how they could utilize the new district to help support the SEC, Daniels said that incremental property taxes generated from the future lower downtown property developments could be a primary source of funding.
“The debt servicing costs would primarily be paid from incremental property taxes generated from the developments that were just highlighted in the lower downtown area. Post development, these property taxes are estimated to be $9.5 million and current taxes on these properties are half a million dollars, meaning incremental taxes would be $9 million annually,” she said. “Once fully developed, this level of incremental property tax is sufficient to pay the annual servicing costs of $8.5 million annually on a $140 million debenture. The developments in the lower downtown area are also eligible for tax increment grants during the first years of post development in accordance with the Downtown Community Improvement Plan. Until the taxes generated from these developments are fully phased in, those other revenues will be utilized to assist in servicing debt payments without increasing the tax levy.”
As council later moved into discussions, Councillor John Sless, like many of the others, was in full support of the project as a whole.
“For me, this is a very historic night for our community and for our city. We’re stepping out from underneath, what I would call, an inferiority complex about ourselves. We haven’t felt good about ourselves since the 80’s when everything kind of went sideways on the city. A lot of people were unemployed and we were a depressed area and I think we’ve grown out of that. I think we’re finally taking our rightful place by doing this with other comparable communities,” he said. “… There’s been a lot of talk about the OHL, and rightfully so, they’re an economic driver. There’s pride in the team, there’s pride in our community because of the team and we’ve had an opportunity to test drive this at no cost. … There’s excitement in that building, and the place is packed and it’s loud. I think it’s called the ‘Madhouse on Market,’ and for a good reason because that’s exactly what it is on game days.”
While several speakers talked about the new entertainment district and the SEC itself having the potential to help revitalize the downtown, Councillor Richard Carpenter said he had questions about the plan.
“I’m having trouble squaring this with a few things. It wasn’t that long ago, probably six or five years ago now, when this council decided that they needed to sell Arrowdale because we needed $14 million for housing. We didn’t look at any incremental property taxes from some other place to fund that and we actually don’t make any annual commitment to the budget for housing at all,” said Carpenter. “Then I look back on all the times that we talked about downtown revitalization, we’ve been talking about this for as long as I can remember. It was Eaton Mall that was going to be the savior of our downtown, and of course, it wasn’t. Then we said the university was going to save our downtown and it hasn’t done that either. Now we’re saying this arena will save our downtown…”
He said that although he’s a Bulldogs season ticket holder and loves hockey, he loves his community as well and so they should be considering all sides involved.
“I’m concerned about the financing option here and what the costs are going to be for the municipality long term,” admitted Carpenter. “I’ve seen so many plans that were going to save our downtown and it just didn’t happen. “…We should be considering all sides of this like what are the risks and what are the benefits? We’re here to look at all aspects of the program.”
A short while later, the recommendation to move forward with the SEC was carried on a unanimous vote and will come to council for final approval during the Tuesday, October 29 City Council meeting.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
