Winspear Centre Completion Project | 29.87m | 4s | Winspear Centre | Andrew Bromberg

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    53
CplKlinger said:
Coming to the Jan. 22 Executive Committee meeting: A report about a major budget shortfall for the Winspear project, and potential next steps. The budget is $115.2 million, along with another $3 million in capital renewal work - for a total budget of $118.2 million. The Winspear has secured $81.8 million of funding, leaving a gap of $33.4 million.

"At the time grant funding from the City of Edmonton was approved the estimate for the Winspear expansion project was $53 million . This estimate was for a new 540 seat acoustic hall theatre, six1multipurpose rooms and commercial space. Since then, the project has experienced significant cost escalations as a result of inflation and supply chain disruptions. Costs have also increased a result of design changes following the COVID-19 pandemic, space originally planned for day care and retail operations has been redesigned to support additional programming activities. In total, these items have resulted in a revised total cost estimate today of $115.2 million. In addition, the Winspear has identified that an additional $3.0 million is required to address capital renewal needs that have seen their timelines intersect with the expansion project, which brings their total revised cost estimate from $115.2 million to $118.2 million. The first round of project fundraising produced $71.8 million resulting in a funding shortfall of $46.4 million shown in the table below.

Winspear intended to address this funding shortfall by requesting an additional $12.8 million each from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments and $8 million from an additional community support campaign. $13.0 million has since been received, primarily from the provincial government approving an additional $12.8 million within their 2024 budget, which brings the total funding shortfall remaining to $33.4 million today ($30.4 million related to the expansion project, and $3.0 million related to capital renewal needs).

The Winspear has indicated there are no additional significant federal opportunities for which the project would be eligible and that additional community support fundraising has become increasingly difficult and competitive due to economic conditions and comes at a cost to other operational fundraising, which comes from the same donor pool. They hope to secure some additional funds through a top-up to existing federal funds (under $1 million), and an application has been made provincially under the Community Facility Enhancement grant program for funding related to the $3.0 million capital renewal project that was not part of the original expansion plan."

Options going forward include:

1. The city provides the entire #33.4 million needed;
2. The city provides a partial funding top-up;
3. Pause the project pending further funding as of fall 2025;
4. Stage the completion to allow for a component of the expansion to be funded at a later date, with priority given to programming and developing spaces that can return programming revenue. Specifically, it would be phased in this order of priority: a) Complete all Concert Hall side renovations; b) Develop Level 1 in expansion building, programming studios, and administration spaces; c) Complete parkade and plaza components; and d) Complete the Music Box. The Music Box would be phased last because it represents the most costly and complicated portion, and is an "appealing asset" for a fundraising campaign.
5. The city could loan interim financing to the Winspear until they can secure final financing.

The report has thorough analysis of the financial situation (including a detailed breakdown in a table of project expenses and funding sources), as well as strengths, weaknesses, and risks of the five potential next steps. I highly recommend giving it a read.
Click to expand...

I believe the city has allocated money for the Coliseum demolition - something like $38 million? That could be transferred to this project.

Province may (and should) step up and cover those costs in the Feb budget since they are covering the saddledome demo.

Or, some may advocate not demolishing the Coliseum at all.
 
Brilliant @TAS! -- the $38 Million for demo for the Coliseum is wasted expense and should transfer to what is needed to make the Winspear whole. Do not demolish the Coliseum -- it has great potential in the "other" column.
 
TAS said:
I believe the city has allocated money for the Coliseum demolition - something like $38 million? That could be transferred to this project.

Province may (and should) step up and cover those costs in the Feb budget since they are covering the saddledome demo.

Or, some may advocate not demolishing the Coliseum at all.
Click to expand...
if you want to run for Council in my ward (O-day’min) on that platform alone you have my vote!
 
TAS said:
I believe the city has allocated money for the Coliseum demolition - something like $38 million? That could be transferred to this project.

Province may (and should) step up and cover those costs in the Feb budget since they are covering the saddledome demo.

Or, some may advocate not demolishing the Coliseum at all.
Click to expand...
Good idea, being able to free this money up and use for the Winspear could be the solution.
 
The idea that the province is going to pitch in for the demolition of the Coliseum is a fantasy. The old unspoken tit for tat treatment of Edmonton and Calgary by the province is over. Calgary will get money and we won't, it's not right but it's reality. The Coliseum needs to go, its been a dead blight on our neighborhood for nearly a decade now. It's an ugly concrete pile that is not worth saving as any potential reuse would be much cheaper to build from scratch. Better to use that money to save truly significant structures like the powerplant or filling in the 118 ave LRT hole and building the two new LRT stations. Its an embarrassment that the City has yet to deal with the Coliseum.

This is distracting from the real issue, a DOUBLING of the Winspear project cost since the funding was awarded. It's not even primarily inflation! They kept adding bells and whistles until the project ballooned way out of budget. I am a regular patron of the ESO and most years buy a subscription. Love the Winspear but this this project has gotten way out of hand. The City should think very carefully about rescuing the Winspear foundation from this, we have our own financial problems to deal with. This chart from the report is very informative.

1737485816105.png
 
SarcasticMarmot said:
The idea that the province is going to pitch in for the demolition of the Coliseum is a fantasy. The old unspoken tit for tat treatment of Edmonton and Calgary by the province is over. Calgary will get money and we won't, it's not right but it's reality. The Coliseum needs to go, its been a dead blight on our neighborhood for nearly a decade now. It's an ugly concrete pile that is not worth saving as any potential reuse would be much cheaper to build from scratch. Better to use that money to save truly significant structures like the powerplant or filling in the 118 ave LRT hole and building the two new LRT stations. Its an embarrassment that the City has yet to deal with the Coliseum.

This is distracting from the real issue, a DOUBLING of the Winspear project cost since the funding was awarded. It's not even primarily inflation! They kept adding bells and whistles until the project ballooned way out of budget. I am a regular patron of the ESO and most years buy a subscription. Love the Winspear but this this project has gotten way out of hand. The City should think very carefully about rescuing the Winspear foundation from this, we have our own financial problems to deal with. This chart from the report is very informative.

View attachment 626843
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was going to say, this isn’t “we went over budget a bit cause inflation”.

This feels like complete mismanagement of a massive capital project without clear fundraising capabilities. If the grants don’t exist, nor the contacts to raise tens of millions, why is the project scope so large?
 
CplKlinger said:
4. Stage the completion to allow for a component of the expansion to be funded at a later date, with priority given to programming and developing spaces that can return programming revenue. Specifically, it would be phased in this order of priority: a) Complete all Concert Hall side renovations; b) Develop Level 1 in expansion building, programming studios, and administration spaces; c) Complete parkade and plaza components; and d) Complete the Music Box. The Music Box would be phased last because it represents the most costly and complicated portion, and is an "appealing asset" for a fundraising campaign.
Click to expand...
Is there any real risk to this option? It kind of sounds fine?

Like, the Music Box sounds great and I'm excited to one day go to concerts there. But when I think about what's really exciting and necessary, it's the programming/educational spaces, not a new concert hall.
 
constance_chlore said:
Is there any real risk to this option? It kind of sounds fine?
Click to expand...
This is what the report says:

"Winspear has indicated that staging is not the most efficient construction sequencing as general contractor and trades are mobilizing and demobilizing more often, extended project timelines attract annual inflation escalation and financing costs. It also requires additional engineering and architectural drawings to delineate the scopes of each phase. Preliminary estimates shared suggest an additional $900K of engineering and architectural fees (currently not contemplated in the budget) to further break down the phases."
 
SarcasticMarmot said:
The idea that the province is going to pitch in for the demolition of the Coliseum is a fantasy. The old unspoken tit for tat treatment of Edmonton and Calgary by the province is over. Calgary will get money and we won't, it's not right but it's reality. The Coliseum needs to go, its been a dead blight on our neighborhood for nearly a decade now. It's an ugly concrete pile that is not worth saving as any potential reuse would be much cheaper to build from scratch. Better to use that money to save truly significant structures like the powerplant or filling in the 118 ave LRT hole and building the two new LRT stations. Its an embarrassment that the City has yet to deal with the Coliseum.

This is distracting from the real issue, a DOUBLING of the Winspear project cost since the funding was awarded. It's not even primarily inflation! They kept adding bells and whistles until the project ballooned way out of budget. I am a regular patron of the ESO and most years buy a subscription. Love the Winspear but this this project has gotten way out of hand. The City should think very carefully about rescuing the Winspear foundation from this, we have our own financial problems to deal with. This chart from the report is very informative.

View attachment 626843
Click to expand...

Why did they add a $9m parkade? Library parkade is right across the street and has plenty of space, and it's directly next to all three LRT lines. That seems absurd, especially after the city removed parking minimums and has goals of reduced car trips.
 
I can only speculate, but I could imagine that there are some powerful donors/administrators who considered it a priority to be able to zip in and out without interacting with the various characters downtown, and who would certainly never deign to take public transit.
 
Last edited:
I believe there's only one storey of underground parking, plus new back-of-house loading/unloading areas. My guess is that cost also includes foundation work and separate fire/mechanical.

Also this does or doesn't include the cost of district energy which Winspear is officially the only building signed up to use it at this point.
 
constance_chlore said:
I can only speculate, but I could imagine that there are some powerful donors/administrators who considered it a priority to be able to zip in and out without interacting with the various characters downtown, and who would certainly never deign to take public transit.
Click to expand...
Sadly you're probably right. They might even be above using the unclean public parkade :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top