Rogers Place arena's winter garden making progress

It's little more than a steel skeleton now, but by fall 2016 the main entrance to Edmonton’s new arena will bloom into a winter garden splendour.

​That's how officials with the Katz Group describe the “signature feature” of the Rogers Place arena.

“These (renderings) speak to the capacity that has been designed into the winter garden to hold all sorts of different types of events ... and we think it is a really unique space, we think that it will be one of the calling cards, if you will, of the arena district,” said the Katz Group's Bob Black.

The 24,000-square-foot pedway, which will connect Rogers Place with the MacEwan LRT station over 104th Avenue, will be its own destination, Black said.

​“It’s also a place where Edmontonians will come and celebrate magical moments, where they will attend sports and arts and cultural events," said Black.

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Rick Daviss, the city’s executive director for the project, said he is excited with the progress.

“I sit and kind of pinch myself from time to time thinking that it’s only since Feb.11 of last year we knew for sure we were going to build this and to see how much has been accomplished since then is tremendously gratifying,” Daviss said.

The Rogers Place arena is scheduled to open in time for the Oilers' 2016-2017 season.