On November 13th, Calgarians will head to the voting booth to have their say on whether or not the city should move forward in the bid process to host the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. In the past few weeks, there’s been such an overwhelming amount of information both in support and against going forward in the bidding process it’s very easy to get lost in both arguments.
While a successful bid will impact more than just our industry, here are some definitive impacts on how the building and development sector will be affected by Calgary hosting the 2026 Winter Games.
New Venues
Should Calgary host the Olympics again, it will rely heavily on existing infrastructure but that doesn’t mean new amenities will be made available for the games. These new venues would take the form of a new Fieldhouse and mid-size arena, built with an investment of $430 million dollars.
Existing facilities outlined in the bid’s hosting plan include McMahon Stadium, the Olympic Oval, the Saddledome, the Winsport Sliding & Ski Hill, Nakiska, Nordic Centre, Whistler, BMO, and the Big 4 Building. An investment of $530 million dollars will go towards renewing these facilities for the games.
Housing
The Calgary Olympic Bid outlines a total of 1,850 new units. Of these units, 1,600 of them will be in Calgary and over 1,100 of these are non-market housing. An additional 240 non-market units are being planned for Canmore. The total housing investment is approximately $575 million dollars, which is a net amount that considers project revenues from market housing.
Housing can also be broken down further than what will be in the Calgary Region and what will be in Canmore. The Calgary Athletes Village would amount to 710 units (500 market, 210 non-market residential units) while the location of the village is yet to be determined. Additionally, non-market housing in Calgary is currently in the concept design stage in collaboration with Calgary Housing. This would see 550 to 600 units (mostly two and three bedroom) across three city sites close to public transit.
Another 200 single-bed units will be made available as part of subsidized seniors housing. Calgary 2026 has worked with a well-known non-profit seniors care organization in developing this concept and grant.
Canmore
In the bid, the Canmore Athletes Village calls for 240 units of Perpetually Affordable Housing falling under the management of the Canmore Community Housing Corporation. During the Games, the mountain village would accommodate 1,250 beds for athletes and officials while another 1,000 would be located in and around the Pomeroy Lodge in Kananaskis.
More information on the Calgary 2026 bid can be found at https://calgary2026.ca/