Preparations are about to start for the piece of land that will be home to Calgary’s new event centre.
To make space for the new arena in Calgary’s Culture and Entertainment District, a street, a historic building, and a century-old elm tree need to be relocated.
To create the necessary space for the 10-acre event centre block, crews will be shifting 5th Street Southeast to become 5A Street Southeast after completing underground service work and building a temporary roadway.
Later this year, crews will start removing existing surface parking lots, grading, and excavating the block to prepare it for the event centre. This will happen after the block designs are made public.
After the ground preparation work is finished, the development permit for the building will be submitted to streamline the project and improve cost efficiency.
The city intends to relocate the Stephenson & Co. Grocers building, a historical piece of the area, instead of demolishing it to create space for the event centre. It currently sits at the corner of 13th Avenue and 5th Street Southeast.
The city is also assessing how to integrate it back into the modern-day city landscape, with a final decision yet to be made.
The 125-year-old American Elm tree, known as the Stampede Elm, will be moved from its current location in Victoria Park. It has witnessed the city develop around it since it was planted in the early 1900s. The city plans to remove the tree from the middle of a surface parking lot while preserving some of its history.Approximately 150 seeds have been gathered from the tree, with some being cultivated into new trees in a city tree nursery. The aim is to plant genetically-identical trees in the city’s urban forest.
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The city's plan includes cutting branches from the tree and cultivating them into new trees. The goal is to replant between 100 to 200 trees from the Stampede Elm.
The University of Calgary has digitally captured the unique traits of the tree and added the images to the Alberta Digital Heritage Archive.
The city aims to use the scans of the tree created by the University of Calgary as a tool to share the tree’s story with future generations.
The budget of $1.22 billion allocated to create a new event centre covers the work on this block. It will also house a new home for the Calgary Flames, a community rink and plaza, along with street improvements to accommodate new hotels expected to serve the event centre and the expanded BMO Centre.
The city intends to take out the tree that is currently located in the middle of a surface parking lot, but they want to save some of its historical significance. Alberta Digital Heritage Archive.
The event centre’s lead said the scans have created a “tactile tool” that helps tell the tree’s tale for future generations.
“We are grateful the University of Calgary was able to use this technology to capture the Victoria Park Elm,” Bob Hunter said. “Their work will allow us to remember and honour what Calgary’s landscape looked like in its first 150 years.”
The work on the block is part of the $1.22 billion budgeted to create a new event centre, which will include a new home for the Calgary Flames, a community rink and plaza, as well as improvements to area streets that are expected to have new hotels built to serve the event centre and the newly-expanded BMO Centre.
