Oilers Owner the Katz Group “could choose the downtown arena’s design consultant and architect, despite the fact” the city of Edmonton is “footing the design bill,” according to Michelle Thompson of the EDMONTON SUN. The city in a report released yesterday said that it “reviewed the process the Katz Group used to select those experts and is happy with those choices.” The C$450M arena “will be paid for by the city, the Katz Group and a user fee.” But funding for the project is still C$100M “short and the city is hoping the province will chip in the difference.” The city had been “intending to select a design consultant and arena architect to begin draft designs” (EDMONTON SUN, 11/10). CTV EDMONTON’s Julia Parrish reports the Edmonton City Council yesterday “agreed to borrow” C$56M to purchase the land required for the proposed downtown arena, and “to design the building.” The city is “planning to pay back their portion through lease payments from the Katz Group, ticket tax money, a portion of new property taxes in the area, and parking revenue.” Parrish noted in the last point of the bylaw passed yesterday, it states that “if there is any remaining deficiency, the city would raise municipal taxes enough to repay the outstanding debt” (EDMONTON.CTV.ca, 11/9).
