• The fi rst council meeting of the year leads to the "wrong button scandal" when Ald. John Hamill accidentally votes yay when he meant to vote nay as council rejects the RECC funding proposal after a re-vote.
• By the end of February, Mayor Boucher begins openly criticizing MP Payne over the lack of federal stimulus money that could go towards the REC.
• After a two-month hiatus, RECC meets again to take another crack at looking at a funding model.
• In February, the city applies for the third time for federal funding under the Building Canada plan with MP Payne expressing optimism for the request. The city also announces it has secured $10 million in funding from the provincial government contingent on securing federal funds.
• The REC also is featured in the federal election campaign as Mayor Boucher takes a leave to run against the sitting MP, using the lack of funds for the facility as a hammer issue.
• Payne wins reelection in May stating one of his fi rst orders of business will be to check on the city's Building Canada application.
• The funding model proposed by RECC doesn't go through.
• That model would have seen $51.5 million from the city's Community Capital Reserve Fund combined with monies from grants, fundraising and loans to make up the difference of the $94.5 million project.
• Ald. Kelly offers takes control of the project from RECC and puts it under the Public Services Committee he chairs. He states a facility could be built for $35 million.
- WHL commissioner Ron Robinson states the Arena lags behind every stadium in the league.
• Medicine Hat businessman Bill Yuill offers to kick in the fi nal $1 million if the Chamber kickstarts a $10 million fundraising campaign.
• The Chamber rejects the offer.
• Kelly says that he's been informed no Building Canada Fund money will be available for the REC.
• Payne says $10 million the Building Canada money has been set aside for other city recreation projects. City money budgeted for those projects now goes towards the REC.
• In February, Ald. Les Pearson proclaims, "if there is any question about where the event centre would be built, that question is closed." Aldermen vote unanimously to begin the process of receiving bids to design and build the REC at Box Springs.
• In August, aldermen vote to strike down Box Springs as the site of REC.
• Proposals from the Exhibition Stampede Board, an aldermen-backed idea to redevelop Athletic Park along with a pitch from Landsdowne were reviewed by the city as well.
• By December, council voting unanimously to build at Box Springs by ratifying a land deal with BSBG.
• In the same month, Kelly announced the city will give design fi rms a $61.4 million cost ceiling to build a 6,500-seat arena. That puts the total project budget including land and servicing at around $70 million.
24 2015 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2012 2011 From dream to the building of the Regional TIM KALINOWSKI R
eal estate development is always viewed through the lens of the future. Sometimes it takes decades to realize a return on
investment. And sometimes it happens all at once.
In 2006, Box Springs Business Park was not much more than a bare patch of prairie with a tumbleweed or two blowing through from time to time. Now it is perhaps the single most important 500 acres of land within Medicine Hat’s city limits.
High bets have been laid on the future growth of the business park. With the scheduled completion of the Medicine Hat Regional Event Centre this summer, both the business park’s investors and the city’s government have a lot riding on the deal.
“There are several reasons why the City decided to put the Event Centre in Box Springs,” says John Hashem, one of the partners in Box Springs Business Park. “One of them was because we donated the land, which was a real advantage to the city. We didn’t do that for absolutely nothing.
We did it because we expected it would create more development in our area and make it an area where businesses and industry want to come in.”
Although initially successful in attracting businesses like Princess Auto and Costco to the business park on its own merits, Hashem’s partner group knew a high a profile public structure like the Event Centre going in will up the ante on future growth.
“Most of the businesses that are located here now were coming in with or without the Event Centre,” says Hashem. “The Event Centre is a real bonus for them. But now the interest we are getting from companies thinking of coming to the business park is partly because of the Event Centre. It’s a factor, for sure.”
The phone is starting to ring. The game is afoot. Hashem knows Box Springs has a long ways yet to go before all the dreams are realized. But today, with the Event Centre looming on the horizon, Hashem allows himself to dream. When he looks
Ald. Robert Dumanowski, Ald. Les Pearson, Mayor Norm Boucher, Ald. John Hamill, and Ald. Ted Clugston take part in the Medicine Hat Regional Event Centre Sod Turning in September 2013.
2010
Medicine Hat city councillors and local media take a tour of the Regional Event Centre.
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