Greater Sudbury buys more property for new events centre

Greater Sudbury is purchasing property for its new events centre downtown. The plan is to build the facility in what’s called the South District, a triangle of land within Elgin, Paris and Brady streets.

It already bought businesses that had been located in the area and the Wacky Wings on Shaughnessy Street was the final one.

The business is still open, but by March it will be vacated and the building demolished.

"No matter how you cut it, building the events centre without purchasing the Wacky Wings property would have been difficult — either for the event centre itself or something immediately adjacent to the event centre," said Tony Cecutti, Sudbury’s manager of growth and infrastructure.

During Tuesday's city council meeting, Cecutti said the $2.49 million purchase of the property is now complete. But the owner could still claim additional compensation under the Expropriation Act.

Owner Craig Burgess had previously said he wanted to be part of the new development and didn’t want the 15-year-old business to leave the area.

In an email to CTV News on Wednesday, Burgess said he understands his rights under the Expropriation Act, but did not expand on if he would seek further compensation.

"We are entitled to be relocated and one need not look very hard to determine the square footage cost to build a new restaurant that is approximately 12,000 square feet in size with some very detailed premium workmanship and the other entitlements we have under the Expropriation Act and hope the city can engage with us to help us get back up and running with as little downtime as possible to help reduce the overall costs," he said in the email.

Greater Sudbury already bought businesses that had been located in the area and the Wacky Wings on Shaughnessy Street was the final one. (Photo from video)

Burgess said he hopes the city will consider an extension for the business past March "to help minimize the overall costs the city will be required to cover for our losses during any downtime."

He is still searching for a new location but said there is a "very limited supply of suitable spaces has been available."

The city also purchased a derelict building at 352-362 Elgin St. that will come down in January.

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"It does create more opportunity in the South district," Cecutti said.

"It's a nice opportunity. It's very complementary to what we're trying to do with the development of the events centre. So, it made sense for the city to purchase that and do the demolitions."

The city has hired BBB Architects Toronto Inc to design the events centre in partnership with engineer J.L. Richards & Associates. The venue operator is expected to be named next month.

The exact location will be determined in February. If all goes as planned, shovels will be in the ground by early 2026.