It’s crunch time for Lansdowne project
Critical questions about $400M redevelopment remain unanswered
By Joanne Chianello, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 30, 2013
OTTAWA — There were moments during Monday’s press conference at Lansdowne Park when the construction noise was so loud it virtually drowned out the speakers. Someone quipped that the construction schedule is so inflexible workers couldn’t take a break, even for an hour-long event.
Except that it wasn’t really a joke.
“It’s on schedule, but it’s going to be tight,” said Roger Greenberg, one the business partners in the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which teamed up with the City of Ottawa to redevelop Lansdowne.
OSEG has held a Canadian Football League franchise since 2008, and it’s the group’s desire to bring professional football back to Ottawa that fuelled a years-long, controversial process that ended up in the $400-million redevelopment deal that includes refurbishing Frank Clair Stadium.
The newly named REDBLACKS team is set to kick off in early July 2014. At least, that’s the hope. Greenberg said the CFL could buy the OSEG-city partnership a little more time by scheduling the Ottawa team’s first few games out of town. But what happens if something goes wrong that causes, say, a delay of two months? Or even one month? After all, the REDBLACKS can’t just play away games until August.
We’ll deal with that if it happens, said CFL commissioner Mark Cohon. And anyway, added Greenberg, that’s not going to happen.
“I’m confident it will be open midsummer, first of July.”
Indeed, there was a lot of confidence in the air on the Lansdowne construction site on Monday afternoon. Asked about the surprise sale by Sobeys of its Empire Theatres chain, Greenberg said he was “not in a position to talk about that yet.”
OSEG has a signed lease with Empire for a state-of-the-art multi-screen cinema at Lansdowne, but it’s very unclear what the sale of the movie chain means for the Ottawa project.
And yet, Greenberg has “every confidence that we will end up with a very high-quality, unique-to-Ottawa theatre experience at Lansdowne.”
Good to know that Roger Greenberg is such an optimist.
The fact is, it’s crunch time for the massive project, and there are still some questions outstanding.
One of those is the retail mix for the 360,000-square-foot shopping and entertainment section of the park. There’s been a significant amount of criticism that the retailers thought to be coming to Lansdowne are not really “unique”, as originally promised. There’s an LCBO signed — a really nice one, we’re told — and a Whole Foods grocery store, which will be an Ottawa first. But the retail mix will also likely include a couple of banks and a drugstore.
Greenberg said OSEG will absolutely live up to its agreement to bring new retailers to Ottawa, adding that 65 per cent of the space is leased -- “signed, sealed and delivered,” he said — while serious negotiations are underway for another 20 per cent. Unfortunately, the retailers don’t want their names released yet, but Greenberg hopes to announce them in the next couple of months. Then we can really judge what sort of shopping experience Lansdowne might offer.
This fall should also see the release of additional information on city’s part of the project — which is costing taxpayers $218 million up front — including the Aberdeen Pavilion, the Horticulture Building and the urban park on the east side of the site.
According to Mayor Jim Watson, the city will issue a report about the possible uses for both those heritage buildings before the year’s end. Although the Aberdeen Pavilion isn’t widely used in the dead of winter due to heating restrictions, Watson mused that the Ottawa Farmers’ Market could use it “a couple days a week” in the post-market season if local growers have enough produce. The mayor also envisions a rotating exhibit or event each month in 2017 to celebrate the country’s sesquicentennial.
Ideas for the Horticulture Building include a café and a community kitchen on the ground floor, and possibly city staff offices on the upper level.
While there’s lots of information headed our way over the next few months, there’ll be a lot of folks holding their breath that the stadium is game-ready by July 1.
As for getting the rest of the project online, well, it might not be the smoothest transition.
The Fury FC soccer team, for instance, will have to play the first part of its season off-site; there’s no way Frank Clair Stadium will be ready for the soccer’s April launch, but should be open for the second half of the North American Soccer League’s season.
And don’t expect the condo and office towers to be completed by next summer. Or all of the retail.
“You don’t just open 360,000 square feet all at once,” said Greenberg.
And while the infrastructure for the urban park should be installed by next fall, the planting might be delayed, so it won’t actually look like a park until the spring or summer of 2015.
The biggest question, which no one addressed Monday, was the transportation issue. And we’re not just talking about managing traffic on game day — the city is concocting a convoluted plan for off-site satellite parking — but on a regular Saturday. Getting into the Lansdowne parking lot off Bank Street on a hazardous-waste drop-off day was a challenge. What about when there’s 360,000 square feet of retail luring shoppers? Or worse, what happens to those retailers if getting there gets too hard?
And yet, it’s hard to deny the excitement in the dusty air at Lansdowne. Pity the poor residents who live nearby and will have to put up with construction for many more months — and Bank Street traffic for who knows how long. But it is encouraging to see something actually happening at Lansdowne, even if you don’t agree with how it all happened.
Will it work? That debate is long past. All we can do now is wait. And cross our fingers.
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