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Sudbury Accent: The Synergy Centre

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Work continues on the $65-million Synergy Centre, a state-of-the-art, multi-platform conference centre that will be situated downtown. The centre will host a variety of activities and events that will help to establish Greater Sudbury as a regional cultural tourism destination and hub for conferences, large-scale shows and the like. It will include technologies that allow the space to be transformed to accommodate different types of events and different numbers of attendees.

John Caruso, committee chair, said unlike the arena, organizers behind the Synergy Centre could seek funding from provincial and federal governments.

"At the end of the day, we don't see the city being asked for more than one-third of the cost," he says. "A little over $20 million per contributor. We haven't gone to (the provincial or federal governments) yet, but we've been talking to them and they're very supportive of the project. They're waiting for us to come forward with the ask."

Caruso says his group also plans to seek funding from public and private sources. They hope to present a shovel-ready plan to the next council in 2019.

"It's going to take 10-12 months to do all of that work - detailed architectural drawings, soil testing - there's a lot of work to be done prior to the shovel going in the ground," Caruso says. "Once they start construction, it'll be a one-year construction period. If the building was ready to open in 2020, I think that's probably realistic."

On its website (sudburysynergyproject.ca), those behind the project say the "the centre will provide an ideal venue for trade shows, music concerts, dance and theatre performances, conventions, sports events, corporate functions, group training, workshops, exhibitions and much more."

It is versatile and will be unlike anything Sudbury has ever seen.

The Synergy Centre "is proposed as a 60,500-square-foot building. The largest contiguous space in the facility will be a 13,000-square-foot ballroom/auditorium, which will be able to host 867 people in banquet-style seating or be transformed into a 950-seat theatre. The theatre configuration will consist of 750 convertible from flat floor space and 200 fixed seats in a balcony," a city staff report indicates. "This conversion of the same space from flat floor to high-quality raked auditorium seating will be accomplished through the use of state-of-the-art seating systems. This conversion can happen quickly and provides the Synergy Centre with a completely flexible space that will increase its usage throughout the year, significantly increasing community benefits and decreasing potential operating subsidies."

The Sudbury Symphony Orchestra has already given their blessing to the Synergy Centre and have indicated they would like to adopt the space as their new home.

A preliminary feasibility study found the Synergy Centre could attract up to 329 events and 179,000 attendees per year.

"We project this is going to be a very busy place," Caruso says. "In fact, the consultant has cautioned us that there's going to be a juggling act to make sure the building is accessible for community purposes while at the same time meeting the demand for conferences and meetings."

Caruso says the impact to Sudbury will be enormous.

"When we're booking conferences into the downtown, those participants are staying in hotels, they're eating in restaurants, they're going to bars, they're shopping in local retailers," he says. "This is going to have a huge economic spin-off for this community. Go downtown on a Tuesday night, many of the bars and restaurants are deserted. Now close your eyes and picture we've got 400 delegates at a conference staying in the downtown. That's going to be a game-changer. People are going to be proud of it, they're going to want to go there. They're going to want to see a show there because it'll be acoustically top-notch. It's going to be a game-changer for the community and for the downtown."

Caruso says many high-quality shows, such as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet company, bypass Sudbury simply because the city lacks a proper facility. To date, Caruso says Science North, the medical school, hospital and university have been unable to host large conferences for lack of a facility.

"We're the largest city in Northern Ontario and we have the worst facilities," he says. "This facility in my mind is 20 years overdue, and that's why the federal and provincial governments are saying this project makes sense. "¦ This is a far bigger game-changer for the downtown than the arena ever would have been."

Mayor Brian Bigger said he is aware that a hotel would like to build adjacent or in close proximity to the Synergy Centre. Downtown real estate is becoming more attractive to investors and the construction of three of the four projects downtown will only serve to promote further investment, especially from outside sources.

"This is definitely stimulating and activating other organizations and investment in our community," he said.

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What do you think? sud.letters@sunmedia.ca

 

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