The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has broken ground on a controversial park being built on land it originally acquired to be turned into an arena.

The Franklin and Main Park Project will take up the majority of a block in downtown Fort McMurray. Featuring a basketball court, playground and community event space, the $4.92 million park is expected to be completed in the fall.

Its completion will also mark the end of an eight-year journey that featured big civic dreams, hard economic realities and mixed emotions among downtown businesses that were affected by the municipal expropriation process.

The municipality purchased the land in 2013 as part of a plan to build a downtown arena.

The municipality expropriated five properties at a total cost of $34.1 million, which includes associated costs like legal fees and tearing the buildings down.

The municipality backed away from the idea in 2015, after oil prices crashed and it faced public backlash.

One of the buildings acquired by the city housed Longshots, a downtown bar co-owned by Gord Pederson. When he opened the bar in 2006, he knew there was a possibility the land would be wanted by the municipality.

He said he’s not bitter about the land deal but he is bothered that the building sat empty for about 18 months.

“It’s just another scar on Fort McMurray that I don’t think it deserves.”

Pederson wasn’t against the idea of the arena, but thought the municipality had “excess and grandiose plans.”

“Downtown Fort McMurray needed that little bit of a boost,” said Pederson.

Since then, the land has been a parking lot.

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