Surrey arena announcement expected within weeks, city manager confirms
The 10,000-seat mixed-use complex in Surrey City Centre will include a sports team, hotel, and retail. Details arriving as FIFA World Cup ends.
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Surrey is on track to announce major details about its planned 10,000-seat indoor arena in Surrey City Centre within the next few weeks, city manager Robert Costanzo confirmed Monday.
The arena will be part of a mixed-use development that includes commercial space, a luxury five-star hotel, convention facilities, an outdoor plaza, and residential towers. The facility will anchor a new entertainment district in the city's emerging downtown.
"It's not going to be like a traditional hockey arena," Costanzo told business and community leaders at an event hosted by the Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade. "It's going to be more of a conventional type of building with the restaurants and nightclubs and shops around the perimeter of the site."
A key element: the arena will be associated with a sports team. Whether that will be a brand-new franchise or the relocation of an existing team from elsewhere in the Lower Mainland has not yet been revealed.
The project redevelops city-owned land currently home to the BC Lions training facility. The announcement is expected in early summer, alongside a potential Vancouver City Council decision on Major League Baseball expansion and ongoing negotiations around a potential new home for Vancouver Whitecaps FC.