Seating capacity of at least 8,000

After a political agreement was reached, the project is one step closer to being realised. The matter will be formally discussed by the city council on 24 June. The agreement reached means that a majority of the city council will support selling municipal land to a group of developers, provided that they use it to build an arena where the ByGarasjen car park currently stands.

The company behind the project, which is owned by Olav Thon, EGD Property (Espen Galtung Døsvig) and Rexir (Rolf Tore Andersen and Jan Olav Jørgensen), launched its plans for the city arena in 2018.

The idea is to redevelop the area between the ADO Arena and Bergen Storsenter, including ByGarasjen, into a city arena, a hotel, a modern cinema complex, housing, commercial premises, green spaces, playgrounds and a canal between Store Lungegårdsvannet and Smålungeren.

“We have now reached an agreement on the city arena that provides strong guidelines for the zoning process and sets stricter requirements for what needs to be in place before the commitment to sell comes into force” says Harald Victor Hove, who leads the Conservative Party group on the council.

Construction may start in 2-3 years

The agreement means that there will be more family homes, a higher number of housing units in the project – at least 800 – and a city arena with seating capacity of at least 8,000, and standing capacity of over 10,000.

The project will be fully privately funded, without any obligation for the city authorities to lease or operate it.