Synergy Centre, library/art gallery to evaluate downtown locations

Presentations to Sudbury city council on Wednesday had a specific, but familiartheme: revitalize the downtown.

An urgent topic, considering councillors voted to have a new arena on the Kingsway, in the eastern part of the city,rather than in the city's core, less than 24 hours earlier.

• Sudbury city council selects Kingsway for new arena location

On Wednesday, councillors voted unanimously that work on the Synergy Centre and the main library/art gallery projects wouldcontinue.

That means both project groupswhich have explicitly targeted downtown locationswillhave help from city staffto evaluate and recommend locations, and come up with more defined business and design plans.

Synergy Centre could be downtown 'magnet'

Wendy Watson, co-chair for the Synergy Centre project, says these facilities have even more reason to go downtown, now that council has decided to commit the event centreto the Kingsway location.

"There's someenergy downtown that maybe came on the heels of the [McEwen] School of Architecture, maybe it's just thatmillennialswant to enjoy a bustling, thriving downtown," said Watson.

"But this Synergy Centre is a conference centre, a performing art space, a banquet space, and it has the ability to be a magnet for business tourists."

• Will large projects get funding before 2018 municipal election?

True North Strong's 'Music City' pitch not competition

Last week, Dario Zulich the entrepreneur who owns the Kingsway land on which the event centre will goannounced the concept to turn the current Sudbury community arena into a music and arts centre. But Watson says she doesn't see the pitch as competition.

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"He said 'it's just an idea,' and I wouldpoint out that ourproject report was in the public domain for the past two weeks. Alot of the elements that he proposed were in our project," Watson said.

"But it doesn't matter whose idea it is. There has been talk about a conference and performing arts centre like this for 30 years at least. It's just that it is now time for this to happen."

Sudbury, the butterfly

Sudbury's main library branch is slated for a downtown location no matter the arena debatesince that's its jurisdiction.The new space willalsoinclude the new location for the Sudbury Art Gallery.

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Regardless, chair of the Greater SudburyLibrary Board, Michael Bellmoresaid it's an exciting time to be part of the changes.

"Sudbury's going through a re-emergence, they're like a butterfly right now,and there are some great opportunities for us to contribute to the economic impact of the downtown core," Bellmore said.

"Not only with construction and employment, but there's talk of collaboration with the art gallery about shared space that would be available for weddings, rentals, and exhibitions."

Council's decisions to allow further work on these projects will cost the city a total of $287,500.

The project groups are set to come back to council with site recommendations and more detailed work by June 2018.

City did discuss possibly expediting the process to bring that information to council by the end of this year, but that decision was put on hold for now.