For sale, again: Adstoll Arena
Adstoll Arena is back on the real estate market.
City council agreed Monday night to relist the property after some confusion over the original listing led one potential buyer to bid for the arena as well as a small municipal park and two tennis courts, which were not part of the package for sale.
They are now. Ward 8 Councillor Bill Marra said the entire four-acre parcel, park and all, is up for sale.
"I think it will make more attractive," Marra said of the listing.
If the buyer doesn't want to maintain the park and all recreational facilities and elects to redevelop the land, the courts and park will be saved by moving them around the corner onto city land.
Marra said the city can't legally force the buyer to keep the arena as a recreational facility.
"We can't compel them to keep it as a recreational facility. There's no legal way of enforcing any caveat of that measure. And believe me that was hotly debated [Monday] night, but it's simply not available," Marra said. "If somebody owns a property, they have private rights to those lands to do what is within the conformity of the laws of the land."
Marra said it is possible that someone buys the building and keeps it a recreational facility. A roller derby league is in need of a new home, for example.
And some members of a Facebook group entitled "Save Adstoll Arena" suggested turning it into an indoor skateboard park.
"We're still hearing from people like the Border City Brawlers and some basketball folks; indoor soccer people. There's a number of individuals who want to give it a go. The issue is, do they have the wherewithal to make it?" Marra said.
The city was originally looking to sell the arena for $199,000. He didn't say what the city hopes to receive with the park and tennis courts now included in the sale.
"It might seem low to some people but who is in the market to buy an arena and operate it as a recreational facility? Probably not many," Marra said.
The city closed Adstoll Arena approximately a year ago in the wake of the construction of the WFCU Centre.