Surrey Started Demolition—But Where Are the Final Arena Agreements and Complete Taxpayer Cost?

Demolition has begun. The land exchange is documented. But Surrey’s published records still do not provide one complete public accounting of the $360-million “net” estimate, guaranteed private revenue and long-term operating risk.

On September 10, 2026, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke operated an excavator as demolition began at the former Safeway building at 10355 King George Boulevard. The work marks the beginning of demolition and site preparation for Surrey’s planned 10,000-seat City Centre Arena and Entertainment District. Vancouver Giants co-owner Michael Bublé, majority owner Ron Toigo and members of Council attended the ceremony. The arena is anticipated to be completed by 2030 and is intended to become the new home of the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants, who currently play at the Langley Events Centre.

The demolition came approximately five weeks before Surrey’s October 17 municipal election, in which the arena has become a campaign issue. Asked whether a new council could stop the project, Locke said: “There’s no going back on this project.” She added: “All of the contracts have been done and they’ve been signed and we are ready to go.” Surrey’s public project page still says the City “will complete definitive agreements” for the arena’s design, construction, operation and anchor tenancy during 2026. It lists detailed design and permitting for 2026–2027 and the beginning of arena construction in 2027.

That difference does not establish that the mayor’s statement was incorrect. Additional agreements may have been completed and the project page may not yet reflect them. The contracts themselves were not released at the demolition event. It does create a fair public-record question: which agreements are final, which remain outstanding, and what financial obligations are already binding? DCC Now reviewed the City’s published 2026–2030 Financial Plan, its arena project pages and the independent appraisal behind the land exchange to identify what is documented and what remains unclear. This is not an argument for or against the arena. It is an examination of what the public record currently says about cost, funding and risk.

The Land Exchange

To acquire the arena site, the City-owned Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC) traded three City-owned properties — two industrial sites in Campbell Heights and the Cedar Hills Shopping Centre in Whalley — to developer Wesgroup Properties, in exchange for the former Safeway site at King George Boulevard and 104 Avenue. The three properties transferred were valued at a combined $116.6 million.

A June 2, 2026 report by EY-Parthenon Corporate Finance Inc., commissioned by the City, assessed the fairness of the exchange. Its central finding was that the negotiated value falls within a reasonable range of independent appraisals for the property — and is in fact lower than the $132.9 million value the developer’s own appraiser assigned to the same site.

Valuation Source	Value	Basis
SCDC (City’s) Appraisal	$116.6M	Land residual approach
Property Owner’s Appraisal	$132.9M	Land residual approach
Negotiated Transaction Value	$116.6M	Equal to SCDC’s appraisal
BC Assessment (2026)	$86.8M	Mass-appraisal, taxation purposes

Critics, including McCallum, have compared the $116.6 million transaction value to BC Assessment’s $86.8 million assessed value for the site, arguing the City overpaid. The EY-Parthenon report addresses this comparison directly, cautioning that assessed values are calculated using a mass-appraisal methodology intended for taxation purposes and are considered less reliable than individual appraisals for large, complex development sites — particularly here, where the most recent assessment reflects a valuation date roughly a year behind the appraisals used to negotiate the deal.

The report also discloses a detail that has not been widely reported: if any of the three City-owned properties are resold between 2027 and 2029 before being developed, the current term sheet includes a mechanism for the City to share in any resale proceeds above the negotiated value. A similar profit-sharing provision applies to the acquired arena site itself.

What the Financial Plan Actually Commits To

Surrey’s approved 2026–2030 Financial Plan lists the City Centre Arena as a ranked capital project with a net estimated cost of $360 million. The plan describes contract negotiations with private-sector partners as still expected to produce further development agreements for uses adjacent to or integrated with the arena, including a hotel, conference space, food and beverage, retail, and residential units. It further describes revenue from those development agreements, arena tenanting, and the sale of naming and commercial rights as expected to assist in funding the arena’s construction, operation, and maintenance.

Neither “expected” nor “assist” is paired anywhere in the plan with a dollar figure, a minimum guarantee, or a defined split between public and private funding responsibility. The plan does not specify what portion of the $360 million, if any, is contingent on that expected revenue materializing, or who is responsible for a shortfall if it does not.

That is a statement about the published plan, not a claim that contracts do not exist. Signed contracts that have not been published in the Financial Plan cannot be verified from the documents reviewed here.

Demolition Has Begun—Arena Construction Is Listed for 2027

The City describes the current work as demolition and site preparation forming part of the project’s first phase. Its published timeline separately places detailed design and permitting in 2026–2027 and the beginning of arena construction in 2027. This distinction matters: clearing the site demonstrates that the project is advancing, but it does not by itself show that the final arena design, construction price, operating agreement and tenancy obligations have all been disclosed publicly.

The City should therefore identify the agreements referred to at the demolition event, their approval dates and the non-confidential financial terms that determine taxpayer exposure. If the public project page is outdated, updating it would resolve the apparent difference between the public timeline and the mayor’s statement.

What Remains Unanswered

Based on the documents currently public, several questions have not been answered in the City’s own materials:

• What is the gross construction cost behind the $360 million net estimate, and what is netted out to arrive at that figure?
• What specific dollar commitments, if any, exist for naming rights, tenant lease payments, or development-agreement revenue, as opposed to a general expectation that such revenue will “assist” the project?
• Who bears responsibility for arena operating losses, and what financial obligations, if any, has the Vancouver Giants organization taken on as anchor tenant?
• How does the privately-led hotel, retail, and residential phase of the district relate financially to the publicly funded arena and land components?
• Is the $116.6-million value of the exchanged public properties included within the $360-million net estimate, or is it accounted for separately?
• Which design, construction, operating and anchor-tenancy agreements have been executed, and which non-confidential financial terms can be published?

If the City of Surrey, SCDC, or a project partner publishes figures that fill any of these blanks, this piece will be updated and the source added. Blanks stay blank until the record supplies a number.

The Bigger Picture

The independent appraisal work behind the land exchange appears to have been conducted carefully, and its conclusions — that the City achieved fair market value and negotiated a price lower than the seller’s own appraisal — are documented and available to the public. That distinguishes this land transaction from a simple giveaway, whatever the campaign-season rhetoric on either side.

Surrey may end up with an asset that benefits the city for decades. But an arena funded in part by “expected” revenue and described publicly as a “net estimated cost” is not the same as one with its full costs, funding sources, and risk allocation laid out for the public before construction began. Voters heading to the polls on October 17 are being asked to judge a $360-million project on numbers that, by the City’s own published language, remain partly provisional.

Right of Response

DCC Now invites the City of Surrey, SCDC and the project partners to answer the specific questions listed above. Any documented reply, correction or additional public record received after publication will be reviewed and added with a dated update where appropriate. Contact: info@dccnow.com.

Sources & Documents

• City of Surrey, 2026–2030 Financial Plan (Capital Program, City Centre Arena) — Financial Plan flipbook
• EY-Parthenon Corporate Finance Inc., Assessment of Proposed Land Exchange Transaction, June 2, 2026 — appraisal PDF
• City of Surrey, City Centre Arena and Entertainment District project page — project page
• City of Surrey, “Demolition begins at site of 10,000-seat City Centre Arena,” September 10, 2026 — City media release
• StudioX, “Locke: Surrey arena project can’t be stopped after vote,” September 10, 2026 — Locke quotes
• CityNews Vancouver, “Demolition begins ahead of proposed Surrey Arena and Entertainment District,” September 11, 2026 — CityNews
• CBC News, “Surrey mayor first to tear into building, starting demolition for new 10,000-seat arena,” Sept. 10, 2026 — CBC
• Surrey Now-Leader, “Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke denies ‘bailing out’ developer on arena deal,” July 2, 2026 — Surrey Now-Leader
• Daily Hive, land-swap explainer — Daily Hive

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Sarbjot Singh Locham
Resident & Editor
DCC Now – Delta Community Concerns
info@dccnow.com · dccnow.com

Independent Community Reporting · Public Records · Transparency · Accountability