Construction of Place Des Arts to start next week

The Place Des Arts project received its building permit from the City of Greater Sudbury this week and construction is set to start next week.

The $30 million Francophone arts centre will be located at the corner of Larch and Elgin Streets.

"It was a race against the clock to get work started on the site before soil freeze-up," Stphane Gauthier, president of the centre said.

"This is excellent news for us."

Bleanger Construction was chosen to do the first phase of construction, selected through a call for public tenders. They will be on site next Tuesday and the parking lot currently at that location will become a construction site.

The first phase will include preparing the ground for construction. This includes "excavating contaminated soil and backfilling with reinforced and engineered soils." Phase two will be the actual construction of the building, starting in the spring and continuing into 2020.

According to the centre, the facility will be home to eight cultural organizations and is expected to host 850 events in its first years.

The funding for the project has come from a number of groups and levels of government, including FedNor, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport and the City of Greater Sudbury.