There are now five proposals for the arena committee to consider as a replacement for the West Ferris Arena.

Three were outlined Wednesday at an information gathering session for the committee.

The newest one involves a proposal for an arena at Nipissing University.

Spokesperson David Drenth says the location would be near the student centre.

“I think whatever the city deems appropriate for the community. If it’s a single pad or twin pad fantastic but I did want to illustrate there’s room for growth if that’s the direction we want to go,” he says.

The other proposals were for a $25 million arena on Pinewood Park Drive that would need city services, at a cost of $500,000.

That’s according to Renzo Silveri.

He says they would provide the land to the city, the city would provide the services and build the arena, which that would become the centre of development in the area.

Silveri says the city could finance the cost of the arena by borrowing money, which would be offset by the tax base created on commercial land.

“The cost of the arena is going to be anywhere between $1.6-million to 2-million a year during the debenture period. Our proposal would significantly offset it, or in the best case scenario, completely eliminate the cost to the taxpayer,” he adds.

As well, Near North District School Board chair David Thompson talked about a community hub with their proposal for an arena to be built on board property at West Ferris Secondary School.

Overall, Community Services Committee chair Mark King liked the proposals.

“They were all good. There were some valid points. It’ll be extremely difficult for council to land on one proposal,” he says.

The original proposals are behind Memorial Gardens and the Omischl Sports Complex.

The committee meets again next week.