Building LeBreton Flats - Master Planning

[Westbro]

Maybe NCC should have given Sens that block... so that there could be some indoor-outdoor event synergy.

[LRTeverywhere]

Originally Posted by Westbro

Maybe NCC should have given Sens that block... so that there could be some indoor-outdoor event synergy.

I think some coordination can still be done, lots of park space inbetween the two sites so pretty easy to connect them

[originalmuffins]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Buildings between 12-20 floors according to this article.

A windswept field in the future core of the city, between 2 mass transit stations, and without a single neighbour to complain...in the middle of a housing crisis... and we're going to build only 900 units in a sprinkle of stump towers, eh?

Here are my placeholders of 2x40m 1x50m and 1x60m towers.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...lebreton-flats

These are awfully short. It sucks, I wish there was more height throughout all of the flats. Even if these ones were closer to 20-30F that would fill out the area nicely.

[Badyouken]

This is the worst Sim City ever.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

Hasn't a lot of the decontamination been done already? I seem to remember them bringing tons and tons of dirt away for almost a decade. Was that just for the eastern parts of Lebreton?

Continuing the conversation here.

I'm not clear on which parts of the Flats have been decontaminated so far. I would imagine that decontamination would be part of any negotiations.

I'm guessing the site of the arena proposal isn't as they did archaeological digs a few months ago. Had that been decontaminated, I imagine any heritage elements would be gone by now.

Based on Google Maps and GeoOttawa, I'm guessing everything north of the Aqueduct has been decontaminated along with the area between the O-Train and Albert, east of Broad Street (bridge is all that's left of said street, between Preston and Rochester). If I'm correct, all that's left is the block between Preston and Broad, the arena site and the bus lay-by.

My guess is that the Sens will be offered the entire land south of the O-Train between Bayview and Pimisi.

[J.OT13]

Another reason for a Sens move to LeBreton over any CBD site is visibility. With the planned park at LeBreton, the arena will always have a choice position in the skyline.

[rocketphish]

LeBreton Flats still ideal site for Senators arena, NCC says
As team presents to board, commission's CEO confident site has everything they want

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News
Posted: Apr 18, 2024 3:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

As negotiations with the Ottawa Senators over an arena drag on, the National Capital Commission (NCC) says LeBreton Flats is still the ideal spot for the team and there are no major roadblocks to reaching a deal.

"We think it's an excellent site," said NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum on Thursday. "I think the Senators think it's an excellent site."

Nussbaum said the two sides are still meeting on a regular basis, and the NHL club was set to update the NCC board Thursday during a closed-door session.

He said there are "no major sticking points," but the Senators are still ironing out the financial plan to pursue what's expected to be a massively expensive undertaking.

"Obviously, a project like that is a very significant investment of private dollars," said Nussbaum.

"My sense is there is a lot of work underway on their side to determine all the major facets of that. So that, to me, is a very important element of this that is taking time."

The NCC and Senators-led Capital Sports Development Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2022 toward bringing an arena to the Albert Street site that's currently just west of downtown.

The commission later extended it until this August after Michael Andlauer's ownership group took the club's reins.

Nussbaum said he's hoping to see a lease deal signed by Sept. 1 — though he was clear it's not a do-or-die ultimatum.

"There will be a point at which we'll either have to have a lease or not," said Nussbaum. "I can't say with 100 per cent certainty when that is. Is it in September? I certainly hope so."

But Nussbaum said there is a backup plan for the site, located between Preston Street and City Centre Avenue, that would be focused on a mixed-use development with housing.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has previously mentioned the possibility of a downtown arena as part of efforts to revitalize an area hit hard by the federal work-from-home trend.

He appeared to gently refloat that idea following this week's federal budget, when he speculated that the federal government's rush to offload underused properties could open space for major attractions in the downtown core.

"If there's an opportunity to take a piece of land that the federal government doesn't want anymore and have that be the site for an attraction — and an attraction can be a lot of different things, maybe that's an arena and maybe it's not — [then] we need to look at that," said Sutcliffe who did not mention any specific properties while addressing reporters Wednesday.

In Nussbaum's view, the pace of development at LeBreton Flats means the distinction between the area and downtown Ottawa "is really going to disappear over the coming years."

"The Senators are very clear that being in that sector, being in the downtown sector, including LeBreton Flats, offers many different opportunities from [the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata]," he said.

In a statement to Radio-Canada, the hockey team said it had no updates to offer on its negotiations with the NCC.

LeBreton Flats checks every major box for the Sens, Nussbaum said, including being big enough for the "arena district" the team is looking for and having "extraordinary transit access" with connections to both rail lines through Bayview Station.

Plus, it has easy access to a whole other market on the other side of the river, he added.

"They talk a lot about the advantages of proximity to the city of Gatineau, which opens up, I think, an enlarged market for them," said Nussbaum.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...says-1.7177619

[rocketphish]

LeBreton 'Plan B' in wings if arena talks with Senators fail, NCC says
"There's no question that there will be a point at which we will either have a lease or not."

Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 18, 2024 • Last updated 13 hours ago • 3 minute read

The clock is ticking on the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission has a “Plan B” ready to go if the team decides not to build a new arena on LeBreton Flats, NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum says.

Nussbaum had no significant update to offer on the negotiations after Thursday’s NCC board meeting, although he said talks were continuing and he was optimistic a deal could be reached to move the National Hockey League team downtown.

Last fall, the NCC gave the Senators’ new owner, Michael Andlauer, an extra year to make a decision on LeBreton Flats, but Nussbaum said Thursday there was no deadline for a deal.

“There’s no question that there will be a point at which we will either have a lease or not. I can’t say with 100 per cent certainty when that is. Is it in September? I certainly hope so,” Nussbaum told reporters. “There’s no ultimatum at this stage, just both sides working in good faith to get this done by the September deadline.”

If a deal isn’t reached, the NCC is ready to forge ahead on its own.

“We were very clear when we approved the master-concept plan back in 2020 that our first hope was to have a major attraction, a major event centre there, but we also indicated that, should that not happen, there is a Plan B for those parcels within LeBreton Flats. Clearly there’s a great need for housing and a great need for mixed-use development in the capital,” Nussbaum said.

The NCC has been talking with the team for a decade about building an arena closer to downtown than its current home base in Kanata. The first deal collapsed after infighting between the development partners. Then the death of former team owner Eugene Melnyk and the sale of the Senators franchise to Andlauer in 2023 stalled negotiations again.

More recently, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has mused about using federal government land earmarked for transfer to the city in this week’s federal budget as a potential arena site.

“If there’s an opportunity to take a piece of land that the federal government doesn’t want anymore and have that be the site for an attraction, and an attraction can be a lot of different things — maybe that’s an arena, maybe it’s not — but we need to look at that. We need a plan for the future of downtown Ottawa,” Sutcliffe told reporters this week.

Ultimately, it will be up to the Senators to decide if and where the new arena should go, Nussbaum said. He stressed that it was “not a competition” between the NCC and the City of Ottawa to host the team, but he made a strong pitch for LeBreton Flats.

“From a transit perspective, you cannot imagine a better site,” he said. “I think the Senators are very much taken by the fact that LeBreton Flats is growing. It’s going to become part of the downtown core. The distinction between LeBreton Flats and the downtown is really going to disappear over the coming years.”

LeBreton’s proximity to Gatineau also expands the team’s market and is another advantage for LeBreton, Sutcliffe said.

“But, if that should change and the Senators make decision that LeBreton Flats is not the location for them and they have another site in mind … we will graciously step aside and permit that to happen,” he said. “This is not a competition. While an arena is our first choice (for LeBreton Flats) — we’d love to have a major destination on site — if not, we’ve got a plan for a mixed use development along Albert Street and we will proceed apace with the development of LeBreton Flats as a whole.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-fail-ncc-says

[YOWflier]

“It’s not a competition”. LOL. Except it was quite literally a competition for the Sens to win preferred bidder status and receive the time allotment to negotiate a lease. Now it’s suddenly not a competition anymore, a few days after the mayor made some public statements.

Everyone is posturing very publicly on this. To be expected I suppose. I’ll guess some on here will think it’s ok for the Feds to be doing it but the mayor is a bad guy for doing same.

I think everyone just needs to shut up from now on and try getting it done. Let us know when there’s real news to share.

[rocketphish]

Sens CEO says LeBreton only site for new arena that they’re ‘serious about’

Mia Jensen, OBJ
April 23, 2024 4:20 PM ET

Ottawa Senators president and CEO Cyril Leeder said Tuesday that LeBreton Flats is the only site in serious consideration for the hockey club’s new arena.

Leeder made the remarks during a panel at the City Building Summit, where several business leaders provided updates on major ongoing projects, including the new Civic hospital campus, the airport, and LRT Stage two.

The site for a new arena to replace the 30-year-old Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata has been a topic of speculation for some time. Leeder said the potential project is still in the early planning stages.

“I would say the only one we’ve been focused on right now is LeBreton Flats,” he said in response to an audience question. “Obviously there are other sites within the city and we’ve looked at a number of those. Probably too early to say definitively where the arena is going to go but, at this point, the only site we’re serious about is LeBreton Flats.”

Leeder said a new 800,000-square-foot arena — which the hockey organization, the city, and local stakeholders have said should be constructed downtown — would cost around $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion, with surrounding infrastructure expected to cost three to five times that amount.

“You’re talking about a three- to six-billion-dollar project,” Leeder said. “It’s a big, big project.”

Last week after an NCC board meeting, NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum said talks were continuing with the Ottawa Senators and he was optimistic a deal could be reached to move the National Hockey League team to LeBreton Flats. Nussbaum also suggested that the NCC had a backup plan for the site in case a deal is not reached with the Senators.

Earlier this year in January, the NCC agreed to extend its memorandum of understanding with the Senators to the fall of 2024 to give the two sides more time to negotiate. The MOU was originally slated to expire last fall.

Following previous owner Eugene Melynk’s death nearly two years ago, the Senators were granted preferred-bidder status in June 2022 to negotiate with the NCC on a plan to build an events centre that would be the crown jewel of the Crown corporation’s long-term effort to redevelop the Flats.

While talks have progressed, the process slowed while the Senators sought new ownership. Toronto businessman Michael Andlauer assumed control of the team last September and has been considering his next steps for a new arena.

Andlauer has repeatedly said he believes that relocating the team closer to the city’s core is the right move, but hasn’t explicitly named a preferred site.

After taking over ownership in September, Andlauer described LeBreton, a federally owned site just west of downtown, as “maybe the best piece of land in the inner city probably in North America available for development.”

At that time, Leeder told OBJ that nothing was set in stone on the real estate front. He said the club would carefully assess all potential scenarios – including what can be done to improve the existing building in Kanata – before making a final decision.

“I don’t think we’ve seriously considered anything at this point,” he added in September. “I know there are different people pitching different sites to Michael, but I couldn’t tell you today if you could fit an arena on any of the alternative sites downtown that have been floated. That work hasn’t even taken place yet.”

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and other members of the business community have suggested repeatedly that LeBreton is not the only viable option for a downtown rink, noting that the federal government’s plan to offload aging downtown office towers could open up new pockets of land for development in the core.

– With files from David Sali

https://obj.ca/sens-ceo-lebreton-fla...ite-new-arena/

[BlueJay]

That is excellent news!

[SL123]

Excellent news!! Will Sutcliffe finally shut the hell up now!

[rocketphish]

Hurdles in the way for the Senators to make a deal at LeBreton Flats

Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 24, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read

The Ottawa Senators are serious about making a deal with the National Capital Commission to move to LeBreton Flats, but there are still hurdles both sides need to overcome to make that happen.

As the debate continues to rage on about where the club should build a new rink, Senators president and chief executive officer Cyril Leeder told those attending a city building summit organized by the Ottawa Board of Trade on Tuesday the club’s sole focus is on making a deal at LeBreton Flats.

“The only site we’re really focused on right now has been LeBreton Flats,” Leeder told the conference Tuesday afternoon. “There are other sites in the city. We’ve looked at a number of those. Probably too early to say definitively where the arena’s going to go, but at this point the only site we are really serious with is LeBreton Flats.”

The clock is ticking on the Senators and the National Capital Commission to get a lease agreement in place to build a new rink on the site, which is located 10 minutes West of Parliament Hill.

Senators owner Michael Andlauer and his partners have been given an extension until September by NCC chief executive officer Tobi Nussbaum to get a lease agreement in place.

While representatives of the two sides continue bi-weekly meetings to try to get a lease agreement in place, league sources told Postmedia on Wednesday there are issues to be settled in this negotiation, not the least of which is the size of the parcel of land.

The NCC has set aside a seven-acre piece of land on Albert Street between Preston Street and City Centre, just west of Ottawa’s new central library, which is now under construction.

By comparison, the Canadian Tire Centre and the surrounding parking lots sit on 75 acres.

Under the current scenario at LeBreton, sources say the Senators are concerned they have little to no room for public parking and the organization would have to rely on light-rail transit.

As we know, the LRT system is troubled, to say the least, and yes it will get figured out someday, but the Senators don’t want that to be the only way in and out of the rink. The club also wants space for an arena district with bars and restaurants as a gathering place.

Nussbaum said the NCC has room for flexibility.

We’re not sure exactly what that is, but you have to think since the site is wide open, it likely has to be closer to the 13.5-acres that city of Ottawa is offering up at Bayview Yards.

Let’s face it, both sides want to get something done, but the NCC is motivated to make this happen after 10 years of trying to get the Senators to move closer to downtown.

“They’ve been very clear with us that their vision is for an arena district,” Nussbaum said. “We have set a fairly significant parcel of land aside in the (memorandum of understanding) for them to construct the buildings they want from a blank slate.

“I’ve said in the past that we have some flexibility from the initial parcel that was subject to the MOU in 2022 to build on is another reason why twice in the last decade they’ve focused on this site.”

The NCC also has strict green requirements on the new building, which will add to the costs. That’s part of the reason Andlauer and his partners visited Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle in December because it boasts on its website that “it’s the most sustainable arena in the world.”

Nussbaum noted last week that September isn’t a hard deadline, but sooner or later the two sides have to determine whether they’re going to go ahead.

“There’s no question that there will be a point at which we’ll either have to have a lease or not. I can’t say with 100% certainty when that is in September. I certainly hope so. That’s our hope,” Nussbaum said following the club’s public board of directors meeting last Thursday.

“Should (the rink) not happen, there is a Plan B for those parcels within LeBreton Flats. If the two sides aren’t able to come to an agreement or the Senators make a decision that they’re not going to build there, then we’ll move to our second option. But I can’t say for sure.

“Is it going to be Sept. 1? There’s no ultimatum, just both sides working in good faith to get this done by the September deadline.”

The Senators won preferred bidder status in June 2022 to build at LeBreton.

That hasn’t stopped the Senators from listening to and looking at other options in the city, especially some that have been presented by Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe in the past 12 months.

Leeder told the summit that he expects the rink would come in somewhere in the $1.2-billion range. The expectation is the club will need help from all levels of government, including federal, provincial and the city.

“Whatever we do with the NCC has to lead to a viable project,” Leeder said. “Something we can finance, something we can build that will work with us in the long term. It’s got to work for us and our fans.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

https://ottawacitizen.com/sports/hoc...lebreton-flats