CaDCR staff writer
With all permits approved in December, Calgary’s Scotia Place construction is still on track, with excavation work expected to last until the spring and underground installations and soil removal to be completed before the foundation starts getting poured in May.
The five-storey $900 million project is expected to be completed by 2027 and be ready for the 2027-28 NHL season.
“With the Calgary planning commission’s final approval on the Scotia Place design, it is exciting to think about the amount of work that will take place over the next two and a half years,” project committee member Bob Hunter said in the news release. “Excavating to the bottom of the site will be the first of many exciting milestones we will see between 2025 and the project’s completion in 2027.”
The contractor is CANA and Mortenson and the project was designed by HOK & DIALOG.
Excavation began after the project’s groundbreaking ceremony in July 2024. Since then, crews have dug more than 10 metres below ground to lower the event bowl.
The new arena, designed so that it can be fully electrified and net-zero by the year 2050, will have a capacity of 18,400 people for hockey games and sporting events, and 20,000 for concerts and a variety of indoor and outdoor community events. The finished site will include a community rink, and public dining options and retail shops.
Influenced by Indigenous voices, the design reflects Calgary and Alberta’s natural environment. The land where the venue will live is ancestral and historical to the Indigenous Peoples, representing our shared purpose – to gather. It offers a special and entertaining space, where visitors can experience community and connect with the natural space that surrounds them.
The design team travelled across the continent to get a better idea of what worked at some of the most loved rinks in Canada and North America.
Scotia Place design features focus on universal accessibility, climate action and making sure every visit is meaningful and memorable, inside and out.
