Laval's Place Bell arena to cost $50M more in overruns
Mayor Marc Demers blames former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt for hiding true costs from taxpayers
Laval’s new Place Bell arena will cost double its original estimate because of costs not factored in by the city's previous administration, said Mayor Marc Demers.
Former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt in 2012 announced the arena would cost $92.6 million. He then revised the estimate nearly a year later to $150 million.
Today Demers announced the 10,000-seat arena would actually cost $200 million.
The current mayor said Laval residents deserve to know the truth on the cost overruns the former administration hid from them. He said Vaillancourt’s plan neglected to take into consideration the creation or cost of parking ($20 million) and the cost of making space for businesses inside the arena ($8 million).
Demers said Vaillancourt also lowballed the cost of the building itself ($130 million, up $10 million from the previous announcement) and the cost of specialized equipment ($42 million, up $8 million from the original estimate).
Demers has now asked the Quebec government to contribute more to the building of the arena. In a release, he said the province has only committed to kicking in $46 million so far.
Demers is demanding the province pay 50 per cent of the costs, as it has done for similar projects in Quebec City and Trois-Rivières.
With files from La Presse Canadienne