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A new sports arena may be coming to Toronto. Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Commissioner Mike Morreale hinted on a CHCH Sportsline podcast episode from August 1st that one of the Greater Toronto Area CEBL teams, the Scarborough Shooting Stars, will be building their own purpose-built facility, the first CEBL arena in the country, and that it “will break ground in a couple of months." Last July, developer Kevric submitted an application for minor variance to facilitate the development of an arena/multi-use facility near McCowan Road and Highway 401 in the Scarborough Centre area which would be their new home. If the project goes ahead, it would represent a more than tripling of current audience capacity for the Shooting Stars, and would address the upward momentum in attendance that the CEBL has been experiencing.
The league is Canada's premier men's professional basketball league, boasting the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 75% of its rosters being Canadian, and a record 10 players with NBA experience in 2024. Founded in 2017, the 10-team league competes in cities across the country – Brampton, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Niagara, Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Scarborough, Vancouver, Winnipeg.
In just their second season, the Scarborough Shooting Stars (SSS) became the fastest professional expansion team in the country to win a championship after defeating the Calgary Surge in 2023. The current home of the SSS is the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC) located at University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). The gymnasium can seat 1,386 up to the bleachers. Given the TPASC’s proximity to nearby low-rise residential neighbourhoods and its primary function as a community and recreation centre associated with UTSC and the City of Toronto, Kevric says it is not an ideal location to house the franchise.
The 8,238 m² Scarborough Centre site, however, is now a surface parking lot associated with the Consilium Place office complex. The broader site at 100-350 Consilium Place comprises three 17 and18-storey office buildings that are owned and operated by Kevric. The proposed arena is intrinsically tied to the office complex and would share its parking facilities. However, given that the arena would be a free-standing building, a technical variance is required. The site has excellent access to both higher-order and surface transit routes, being located 165m northeast of the new Scarborough Centre subway station on the Scarborough Extension of Danforth Line 2, now under construction.
While there has been little media coverage, in an Instagram video posted on July 17, 2023 by Sam Ibrahim, co-owner of the Scarborough Shooting Stars, Sam shares some details on what would be, saying “Scarborough’s first arena — similar to Scotiabank, etc. — it’s going to hopefully be the entertainment centre of the city.”
Designed by WZMH Architects, the proposal envisions a 3-storey arena/multi-use facility with seating for approximately 4,600 people. The proposal, whose gross floor area is 5,488 m², includes administrative and media offices, a basketball court, a fitness room, changing facilities and concession kiosks. Besides housing the SSS, the facility would also provide recreational amenity spaces for the surrounding community focusing on youth sports and activities, and host events such as conferences, concerts and trade shows, among others.
The proposal includes a surface parking lot containing 24 parking spaces at its south end. It will also have access to the existing Consilium Place office complex underground parking garage, where all three office buildings share access to 1,523 vehicular parking spaces.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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| Related Companies: | Bousfields, WZMH Architects |
