EDMONTON - While Rogers Place arena has been scrutinized from the start, information about the area surrounding the new home of the Edmonton Oilers has been murky.

On Thursday, Daryl Katz, team owner and co-developer of the Edmonton Arena District (EAD) made a rare appearance before journalists to reveal new details about a $2.5-billion mega-development that will transform four million square feet (including the arena) of downtown parking lots and one-storey building sites into what he calls the largest mixed-use sports and entertainment project in Canada.

“There’s nothing like this district anywhere in Canada,” said Katz, chairman of the Katz Group which has partnered with WAM Development Group.

“Arguably, there’s nothing like this district anywhere in North America.”

Planning for the district began at the same time as design work started on the arena, with help from consulting company Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

AEG previously helped turn a rough Los Angeles neighbourhood into L.A. Live, a glitzy arena district filled with restaurants, entertainment venues, and a hotel and condo complex.

Katz said Edmonton’s arena district has already one-upped its Los Angeles counterpart with a little more than $1 billion in projects already under construction and another $1.5-billion worth to start in the next six months.

“We are building more in Phase 1 in Edmonton than they have built to date after 12 or 15 years at L.A. Live,” Katz said.

“We have a world-class sports and entertainment district under construction now in the city and nobody really knows about it.”

Darren Durstling, CEO of WAM, said, “It’s been the quietest $2-billion development of all time.”

The EAD will be built over two phases. The first stage is already underway and its 2.6 million square feet of development around the arena is slated for completion in 2019.

This week, the EAD joint venture announced a 62-storey office and residential tower and future Stantec headquarters will be built on the southeast corner of the parking lot at 102nd Street and 103rd Avenue by 2018.

Construction has begun on a 27-storey office block to house City of Edmonton employees at the site of the former Staples store, at 101st Street and 104th Avenue. It’s expected to open in September 2016.

Durstling said an upscale hotel and luxury residential tower will be built just north of the Stantec tower and across 104th Avenue from Rogers Place. It is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2017. The developers are in discussions with an unidentified hotel group.

“The last (downtown) hotel was built in 1978,” Durstling said. “Edmonton’s looking for quality and it’s time to move up.”

A 55,000-60,000-square- foot casino is slated to go in a building just east of the arena that will also house Oilers and Katz Group offices and a practice rink.

To the west, on the site of the existing Greyhound bus depot, a retail podium will be completed in the first quarter of 2019 with a residential tower opening a few months later.

Durstling said the podium will house entertainment and lifestyle retailers such as a movie theatre, fitness gym, grocery, pharmacy, bank and restaurants.

A 50,000-square-foot public plaza filled with programmed activities and events will be framed by the arena, Stantec tower and the former Greyhound site.