Canadore’s potential sports facility development which could include a twin ice pad is still moving ahead but it’s turning out to be a slow process.
Jessica Charette, Canadore College Communications and Public Relations Director, tells BayToday.ca that they have received all the RFP responses and they are now currently under evaluation.
“This is a silent phase of the process,” noted Charette.
“There has been a request for an extension of this evaluation period, which would take us to the beginning of June for news.”
The school was expected to name its winning bidder in late 2015 but that was before a geo-technical survey was required on the land behind the Canadore Commerce Court Campus.
The news of the evaluation extension comes while the city of North Bay expects to hear an engineering report which will give city council the direction which the city should go in dealing with a new facility and the aging arenas like West Ferris.
“We are going through this user process right now which we had the first meeting last week dealing with ice rental costs and how these things will kind of all shape out so all of these things are kind of coming together,” said Councillor Mark King, who is also the Chair of Community Services.
“We have the other issue of the College and University and how that might fit into the puzzle so it’s going to take some time to figure it out and try to get the best possible outcome really in my mind is most important.”
If the Canadore project becomes a reality, its expected the project will be a P3 initiative connecting the private partners, Canadore College and the City of North Bay.
The word of the project first got out in January of 2015, when Canadore College put out an addendum seeking a company to build on their property behind the Commerce Court Campus - right next door to the aging Pete Palangio twin pad arena.
