Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffwhit
Firepark is not terrible for its location, but for what is at the location. IE office parks and warehouses.
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A stadium could be built there (it has been rumored as a potential site in the past) but you'd have to develop whole hog - arena, hotel(s), and retail. The site is big enough - it's the size of the Stampede grounds south of 17th Ave. line. I'm betting this is the "other downtown" site being considered - with "downtown" being thrown out as a red herring. It's a big-ass property with only a small piece cut out of the SE corner. I know this because I used to work on that SE piece back when it still had the former offices on it for the Firestone plant, the idea being that Alberta Wheat Pool was going to develop it for their new head office. The crash of the the '80's killed that idea.
A location for a full sized arena won't be dependent on surrounding business - it's a destination unto itself and will drive development around it. It needs to have good transportation infrastructure and a large chunk of land - few locations like that in Calgary outside of this one and the already mentioned greyhound bus terminal area. I'm betting on Firepark as being the location as it has in-place car and LRT access, and is large enough to do an arena + supporting development project.