Surrey, B.C. — Sept. 10, 2026 — Demolition has started at the former Safeway at 10355 King George Boulevard, the site of Surrey’s planned 10,000-seat City Centre Arena.
Mayor Brenda Locke, members of Council, Vancouver Giants majority owner Ron Toigo and co-owner Michael Bublé were on site Thursday as crews began taking the vacant grocery store apart. Locke also climbed into a bulldozer for a ceremonial first pass.
She spoke to reporters at the site, including StudioX News.
“It’s an iconic day,” Locke said. “It felt great to see this building coming down because we know what is going to spring out of the ground in four years for the residents of Surrey.”
The city says the arena will become the new home of the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants and the centrepiece of a sports and entertainment district across from City Hall and Surrey Central SkyTrain Station.
The site and the land swap
The Safeway at King George Boulevard and 104 Avenue closed in 2021 and has been empty since. The roughly five-acre parcel sits on two major roads, across from SkyTrain and one block from the Surrey Central bus exchange.
Surrey is securing the land through a land swap with Wesgroup Properties. The city is to take the King George site in exchange for city-owned parcels elsewhere. Earlier public figures put both sides of that swap in the same value range. Title timing was not spelled out in Thursday’s release.
Locke called the corner “centre ice.”
“This location is an iconic location in all of British Columbia,” she said. “It is the centre of the whole of this region, all of the south part of the province.”
The city has not yet issued a detailed haul route for demolition trucks or an event-night traffic plan for a 10,000-person crowd next to SkyTrain.
What Locke says will be built
Locke described the arena as a gathering place for the whole city, not only hockey.
“We’re looking forward to this amazing arena that is going to be really a focal point for all of Surrey,” she said. “It’s going to be a place where young people and old people and everybody in between are going to be able to not only play sports but enjoy amazing concerts and so many other things are going to happen right here in Surrey.”
She did not say how many nights a year will be reserved for community ice, school events or cultural bookings when the Giants are not playing.
The first phase now underway is demolition and site preparation. The wider district is also planned to include a luxury hotel, conference space and housing. City project materials describe later, partner-led phases with restaurants, residential towers and ground-floor retail.
“This project represents an important investment in Surrey’s future,” said Bill Aujla, president and CEO of the Surrey City Development Corporation. “Today’s demolition marks the transition from years of planning to action.”
$360 million — what was said, what was not
Asked what the project will cost Surrey taxpayers, Locke used the city’s overall figure.
“This has all been planned,” she said. “We have partners that are coming in on it and we know that it is about $360 million overall that this project is going to cost.”
Pressed on private investors inside that budget, she said partners would be in “all parts” of the district, including the hotel.
“There is going to be investors in all parts of what’s going to be happening here, including the hotel that’s going to be coming out of the ground.”
The city did not publish a breakdown Thursday showing how much of the $360 million is municipal money and how much is private equity. Earlier coverage of the June announcement put a large city contribution against the arena itself. Those investors were not named on site.
Locke said the payoff would be growth.
“We’re going to see the growth in this city, we’re going to see the investment in this city is going to be astronomical.”
The city also projects $2.4 billion in economic benefits over 10 years and more than 2,700 jobs across Surrey and B.C. Those are city figures and mix construction with later event and development activity.
On tariffs, supply chains and ballooning project costs, Locke said SCDC and hired professionals are handling contingency.
“I am very confident in the work that we’ve done to date because Surrey is very aggressive in our timelines and therefore we usually do stick right to our budgets.”
2030, or “yesterday”
Asked how fast the building will come down and when construction starts, Locke said she would have started sooner.
“Always I would say yesterday,” she said. “The plan is this is going to be done by 2030 and we’re pretty good at sticking to our timescales in Surrey. So we will be pushing hard to get it done by 2030.”
The Giants now play at the Langley Events Centre. Under the June agreement in principle, they would move when the Surrey arena opens.
“There’s no going back”
With the Oct. 17 civic election about a month away, Locke was asked why the city did not wait for a new council, and whether a new mayor could cancel the project.
“There’s no going back on this project,” she said. “All of the contracts have been done and they’ve been signed and we are ready to go.”
She said the file was not overnight work and that the city, SCDC and Giants ownership had been on it for a long time.
“There’s nothing that the election will impede.”
That is the mayor’s position. The contracts themselves were not released Thursday. Critics of the project have previously argued taxpayers are carrying too much of the risk and that private partners should have been named before dirt moved. Those candidates were not part of Thursday’s official program.
After the ceremonial pass, Locke joked, “I’m thinking of a career change, but it was pretty cool.”
Who was there
The city’s group photo, left to right: Councillor Harry Bains; Giants players Kaleb Hartmann, Cash Koch and Jakob Oreskovic; Michael Bublé; Mayor Brenda Locke; City Manager Rob Costanzo; Ron Toigo; Councillor Pardeep Kooner; Councillor Rob Stutt; Bill Aujla.
What happens next
The Safeway box will come down and the site will be prepared. Design, a construction start, named hotel and housing partners, a public cost split, community-use rules and traffic plans are still ahead of the 2030 target.
City updates:
https://www.surrey.ca/about-surrey/capital-projects/city-centre-arena-entertainment-district
Quick Facts
- Demolition started Sept. 10, 2026 at 10355 King George Blvd.
- Planned 10,000-seat arena; Giants slated as 2030 anchor tenant
- Land: former Safeway site via Wesgroup land swap
- Locke: about $360 million overall; partners “coming in,” including hotel
- No public taxpayer-vs-private split released Thursday
- City projections: $2.4 billion over 10 years; 2,700+ jobs
- Locke: contracts signed; October election “will not impede”
- Community ice / cultural-night quota not detailed
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, Unifor, NEPMCC, and the Canada Freelance Union. Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
