The Ottawa Senators have reached a deal to buy 10 acres of land from the National Capital Commission to build a new arena at LeBreton Flats.
NCC chief executive Tobi Nussbaum said Friday at a news conference that Capital Sports Development Inc. (CSDI) has reached an agreement in principle with the Crown corporation that owns the site just west of downtown to purchase the land at “fair market value.”
Design work for the project has yet to start, and Senators CEO Cyril Leeder said Friday that it will be “years, not months, before shovels are in the ground.” As part of the upcoming due diligence period, the NCC and CSDI will outline next steps and project timelines.
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Leeder said the Senators expect to take ownership of the land within the next year.
“It’s been a long road,” said Nussbaum during a news conference at the Canadian Tire Centre. “Our teams have worked hard over the last year to get here. By siting a major events centre in our downtown core, we will be injecting new energy and excitement into the region, increasing our draw to visitors and helping to really catalyze the LeBreton Flats development.”
In a statement issued Friday afternoon, the NCC said the agreement “reflects a shared vision to create a new vibrant and sustainable mixed-use community” at LeBreton Flats, which has sat largely undeveloped for the past six decades.
However, both sides stressed there is still much work to be done before the deal is finalized, including soil remediation and other environmental studies.
“Negotiations are also ongoing between the NCC and the Algonquin Nation to ensure the Nation secures short and long-term benefits and is a true partner in what promises to be a transformational opportunity for Canada’s capital,” the NCC said in a statement.
Nussbaum said the goal is to create a “truly dynamic mixed-use neighbourhood,” adding the LeBreton Flats development will eventually have more than 6,000 new housing units, a quarter of which are expected to be affordable.
The NCC will also build two aqueducts on site to offer new waterfront spaces for other activities and amenities, he said.
“It’s a great first step, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Leeder said. “We had an agreement last September, we just weren’t able to get into the heavy lifting until we had terms that were acceptable, that we could work with.”
The Senators will be purchasing just over 10 acres of land, as opposed to the six to seven acres originally proposed.
“Today’s arenas, you need a little more space,” Leeder said. “The loading docks are bigger, the amenities in the building are bigger, the people spaces are bigger. So that will allow us to have a site now that we can design around. There are a couple things that we know we can do better on now that we have this size of site to work with.”
There is no firm budget as yet for the project, though Leeder has previously said that arenas these days can cost more than a billion dollars to construct.
While Leeder defended the concept of public-private partnerships, he said Ottawa taxpayers shouldn’t expect to be on the hook for the arena.
“We’re a long way from getting into details on how we’re going to approach this project with the city,” he said. “I don’t think (taxpayers will be contributing). If you look at the history in Canada of public venues, whether arenas or stadiums, (they) have not been funded by the taxpayer.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe congratulated the two parties on social media Friday, following the announcement of the deal.
“It’s very encouraging to hear about this big step forward,” Sutcliffe wrote. “I’m looking forward to hearing more about this potentially very exciting economic opportunity for Ottawa.”
While the Senators are purchasing the land, Nussbaum said the NCC will continue to play a pivotal role in its development as the overseer of the entire LeBreton Flats area.
“This is one key parcel, but within the context of a broader development, there’s going to be all sorts of moments of co-operation and co-ordination,” he said. “This really is an agreement.”
Designing and building the new arena will be a years-long process. In the meantime, the Senators will continue to play at the CTC in Kanata. Leeder said there are no plans as yet for what will happen to the facility once it’s vacated.
“We’re going to be here for a while yet, so that’s the good news,” he said. “We thank them. I think we’ve been good for the businesses here and the businesses certainly have been good to us. We’ve had great support from the Kanata residents, businesses and people in the area. This has not been a bad location for the team the last 28 years.”
A deal years in the making
It’s a long-anticipated deal, and one that had started to wear on local observers as the process dragged on.
Just this week, local business leaders told OBJ that if the Senators and the NCC failed to secure an agreement, it would potentially be a blow to their respective reputations.
While expectations have been high, Leeder said it’s a challenge he appreciates and will continue to appreciate as they tackle the roadblocks that will crop up.
“Pressure can be good sometimes, whether it’s in sports or business,” he said. “It helps focus the mind. I take this as a personal challenge and I’m committed. One of the reasons I came back to the team was I thought it was important to have an arena downtown, so I’m personally committed to that process. I want to make it happen.”
The site for a new arena has been a topic of speculation for some time. In April, Leeder told an audience of local business leaders at the City Building Summit that the club was determined to set up in LeBreton Flats.
Leeder told OBJ at the club’s season launch event earlier this month that talks were intensifying between the two parties and he was hopeful that a deal would come through.
Leeder has 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 between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion. Surrounding infrastructure, such as hotels, condos, restaurants, bars and office buildings, is expected to cost three to five times that amount.
A new arena could be a similar size or slightly smaller than the Senators’ current home, aiming for a capacity of between 16,000 to 17,000 people. It would also include newer amenities and improved loading zones, with the hopes of doubling the number of shows the facility can host.
“You’re talking about a three- to six-billion-dollar project,” Leeder said. “It’s a big, big project.”
Following the death of former Sens’ owner Eugene Melynk, 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 efforts to redevelop the Flats.
The site was identified for a potential major facility in the 2021 LeBreton Flats Master Concept Plan, which reflected the feedback of more than 5,000 Ottawans who participated in public consultations.
The NCC signed a memorandum of understanding with the organization led by the Senators in June 2022 to build a major events centre as part of a mixed-use development at a six-acre plot of land on Albert Street between City Centre Avenue and Preston Street.
Earlier this year in January, the NCC agreed to extend its memorandum of understanding with the Senators to Sept. 20 to give the two sides more time to negotiate. The MOU was originally slated to expire in September 2023.
