NCC close to announcing LeBreton Flats shortlist as names of proponents emerge
Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 12, 2015, Last Updated: February 12, 2015 6:47 PM EST
The National Capital Commission is moving forward quickly with the first phase of its plan to redevelop LeBreton Flats.
The NCC is expected to announce soon which of the five teams that submitted conceptual proposals by last month’s deadline will be invited to develop detailed design and financial proposals for a 9.3-hectare section of the Flats. A selection committee has been evaluating the submissions.
The NCC originally said it would reveal the identities of the approved teams in March, after ratification by its board of directors. But spokesman Jean Wolff now says the announcement “could be much earlier.”
While few reliable details about the content of their proposals have emerged, sources say a new central library is an element of many of them — perhaps as many as four.
As well, one team is believed to be proposing a new home for Library and Archives Canada, whose current facility at 395 Wellington St. is nearly 50 years old. The NCC wants the development to include a “signature attraction” of regional, national or international significance.
The NCC has kept the proposals and identities of the proponents secret, even threatening to disqualify teams that reveal details of their submission. Until now, only the Ottawa Senators have publicly acknowledged submitting a proposal that included a new downtown arena.
But multiple sources have identified several of the other proponents, who include some of the country’s largest development and construction firms. The Citizen sought confirmation from all of the named firms, but most did not respond.
Team One
As everyone knows, the lead player of one of the teams is Eugene Melnyk’s Ottawa Senators. But its partners have never been identified. A key one is Trinity Development Group, founded in 1992 by John Ruddy.
Ruddy is also one of the five partners in the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, the consortium that is redeveloping Lansdowne Park, where Trinity is responsible for retail elements.
Trinity has developed more than 25 million square feet of retail space across Canada, primarily in large-format, urban and community shopping centres. According to its website, it has 17 projects, totalling more than 7.5 million square feet, in various stages of development.
Team Two
It’s an open secret that Claridge, Ottawa’s largest land developer, has submitted a proposal. Since its founding by Bill Malhotra in 1986, Claridge has built more than 8,000 homes, 4,000 condominium units and 500 retirement home suites in this region. It is also the builder of the often criticized condo apartments on the eastern edge of LeBreton Flats.
According to sources, Claridge’s development partners might include First Capital Realty and Main and Main Developments, both of Toronto.
First Capital, valued at $7.7 billion, owns interests in more than 160 urban retail-centred properties, many in the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal. It has seven properties in Ottawa, including College Square and the Gloucester City Centre. In December 2014, it announced plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in major urban centres in Canada, including Ottawa/Gatineau.
Main and Main is a joint venture of First Capital Realty, created in 2011 to assemble, develop and operate sites in Toronto for retail or mixed use. So far, its Ottawa footprint is modest: it’s planning to build a 70-unit condo at 236 Richmond Road in Westboro.
Another member of the Claridge team is believed to be Urban Strategies, an award-winning urban planning and design firm in Toronto. One of its partners, George Dark, has worked extensively in Ottawa and chaired the design review panel hired to advise the city on the Lansdowne Park redevelopment.
Team Three
Another team is led by Devcore Group, a Gatineau development company run by Jean-Pierre Poulin. To this point, it has done nothing on the scale of the LeBreton Flats project, focusing on low-rise and mid-rise residential projects in Gatineau, Eastern Ontario and Val-d’Or, Quebec.
However, Devcore has a strong team behind it, which might include Montreal real-estate developer and construction firm Broccolini. That company built the Export Development Canada building at 150 Slater, the largest office construction project in downtown Ottawa in the past 25 years.
Other players
One confirmed participant is Pomerleau, the biggest player in Quebec’s construction industry. “We’re a member of one of the teams,” Carolyne Van der Meer, Pomerleau’s director of communications, said this week, “but we are not leading or fronting a proposal.”
The company was the general contractor for $136 million worth of work at Lansdowne Park, including rebuilding the stadium and constructing the underground parking garage.
The chosen teams will have until August to submit detailed development proposals. with a recommended winner approved by the NCC board in November and sign-off by the federal government by June 2016.
With files from Joanne Chianello
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