The overall redevelopment plan aims for a live-work-play experience similar to Toronto’s Distillery District and Maple Leaf Square (aka Jurassic Park), Edmonton’s Ice District and L.A. Live in Los Angeles, says Jasper Kujavsky, director of the arena renovation project and a HUPEG founding partner.

The arena has “good bones,” Mr. Kujavsky says, and is situated close to downtown hotels, restaurants, shops and public transit, including the future Light Rail Transit system. While the venue is currently home to the Hamilton Bulldogs (Ontario Hockey League), Hamilton Honey Badgers (Canadian Elite Basketball League) and the Toronto Rock (National Lacrosse League), the renovation will give it a better shot at hosting additional sporting events such as the Canadian Hockey League’s Memorial Cup, he says.

The three teams have not yet announced where they will temporarily relocate to during the renovation, Mr. Kujavsky says.

Inside the venue, with seating remaining at about 17,500, there will be expanded concourses, comprehensive transformation of the lower bowl, more comfortable seating and better sightlines. A flexible curtaining system will block off the upper-bowl balcony when not in use to help create a more intimate attendee experience in the lower bowl.

The venue’s locker rooms will be modernized with on-site training facilities and social spaces where athletes can unwind, and the roof structure will be reinforced to handle a modern scoreboard as well as rigging for concerts and shows.

The renovation will convert about 80,000 square feet of storage space to restaurants, suites and club areas. “That will change the dynamic of the building,” Mr. Kujavsky says.

“We can open up that space and provide a greater experience and help drive more revenue for the building and the community,” Mr. Collins adds.

Part of the plan is a sort of democratization of the venue’s social spaces, he says: “We come from the mindset that we need to provide something for everyone so there aren’t the haves and the have-nots. There are different opportunities for different areas of the building.”

OVG-designed venues offer traditional executive suites as well as theatre-style seating adjacent to club spaces for those who require only a few seats to entertain clients.

The luxury box as a driver of revenue is a significant development in modern sport venue design, notes Peter Sealy, assistant professor at University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design – fast WiFi, the latest big-screen technology, sophisticated sound and light equipment, and streetscape integration are all must-haves these days.

“Revenue from luxury boxes plays a huge role in the overall financial picture,” he says.

OVG’s arena projects have veered away from traditional food and beverage concession stands toward innovations such as Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, which is in Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena and New York’s UBS Arena.

A customer’s scanned credit card is automatically charged when they take food and beverages off the shelves, eliminating checkout lineups. OVG is also looking at a marketplace concept for FirstOntario Centre that’s similar to the grocery store self-checkout experience, Mr. Collins adds.

With Hamilton as its Canadian entry point, OVG is interested in communities that wish to revitalize their sports and entertainment offerings or are underserved by their current venues, Mr. Collins says.

As for size, OVG’s sweet spot is typically just over 20,000 seats. “We try to stay in that ballpark because that’s what we feel we do best,” Mr. Collins says. “Our strategic relationships with content providers scale to that size and the economics work better for us.”