The city will pay $1.245 million a year for ice time at the newly expanded Cambridge Sports Park, on top of a base lease fee of $150,000 annually.
This comes from an updated lease agreement the city is planning to sign with Buckingham Sports Properties Company, which is based in Toronto and aims to add two more ice rinks to its Franklin Boulevard location.
The 25-year amended deal will be up for council approval next week, about six months after staff were told to hammer out the details.
Staff say they faced some hiccups and delays because “substantial changes in construction costs since early 2020 due to the pandemic and supply-chain issues.”
Partnering with Buckingham offers a cheaper alternative compared to the $26 million price tag for building a twin-pad arena as part of the city’s planned southeast rec centre.
The bigger facility will fit well with recent plans to build two NHL-sized ice pads and upgrade Preston Memorial Auditorium next year.
When the new site is ready, the city plans to shut down Dickson and Duncan Mc Intosh arenas since they won’t be needed anymore.
The city expects that by closing those older arenas and from projected ice rental income, it’ll save around $675,000 – affecting taxes by roughly.67 per cent.
The four-rink complex under construction will have two brand-new ice surfaces (one NHL size) plus seating for 700 people. The existing two rinks get an extra 100 seats each, with one rink designed to support sledge hockey.
Apart from that, there’ll be 12 new dressing rooms, two rooms for referees, office space and storage for user groups along with showers and restrooms.
The final design will need input from city staff before getting approved.
Buckingham is responsible for all costs involved in designing, building and maintaining this larger facility.
The city has agreed to buy 2,400 hours of prime-time ice yearly under this contract plus another 200 hours during non-prime times and an additional 200 hours over summer months.
The yearly price can go up or down each year based on inflation tied to the Consumer Price Index.
This facility will be classified as a municipal capital facility so Buckingham won’t pay development charges to the city but still owes them regionally and to school boards.
The deal locks in the property’s assessed value at what it was in 2021 for twenty years. Buckingham only pays taxes on that old assessed value while annual tax increases still apply. The new part won’t be taxed during this period either.
If Buckingham gets their occupancy permit by Sept. 1, 2023, all building permit fees will be refunded. This means about $600,000 in waived development charges and fees total.
The agreement also says Buckingham should try hard to resell any unused city ice time – giving any revenue back to the city. The current contract letting Buckingham run 840 prime-time hours between Sept. 1 and April 15 stays active too.
Buckingham runs six arenas including Cambridge’s plus four-rink sites in Montreal and Toronto.
Council staff talked with London, Mississauga, and Vaughan before starting talks with Buckingham-to see how public/private deals worked out there.
Buckingham operates Cambridge Sports Park under a long-term lease on land owned by the city itself.
