The New Official Lansdowne Park Conservancy Thread

[lpc]

This new thread has been created to discuss all information regarding the Lansdowne Park Conservancy. The old thread will reside but will not be added to due to a technical problem with the thread.

Official replies and new postings from the Lansdowne Park Conservancy will only be posted in this thread.

[lpc]

Common misinterpretation of the City issuing an RFP is that you start over from scratch.

The outline for the park has been clearly defined by Council:

A 24,000 seat stadium expandable to 45,000 on a temporary basis for large events.
A Renovation to the Arena and retail components and access points for the North Stands
A Green Space
A Revenue/Retail Model
A Management/Governance Model
A completion time of 30 months.

All that has to be determined is Best and Final Offer through RFP for supplier.

As previously mentioned that is a component of Section 25 of the Procurement By-Law.

An RFP appears inevitable so better sooner than later and respects the Direction of the Executive (Council).

[lpc]

Example of larger RFP:

Husky Stadium - University of Washington
$300M project

RFP release date July 17, 2008
RFP all bids in date September 4, 2008
RFP decision October 9, 2008
Construction Start December 1, 2008
Stadium completion date August 1, 2011

Total RFP time 83 days from release to winner chosen.
Total Construction time 33 months.
Stadium seating capacity 72,000


Larger stadium (factor of 3)
Larger value (factor of 3)
RFP completed in under 90 days.

[lpc]

Lansdowne Park Conservancy site plan
http://lpc-cpl.ca/images/siteplan.jpg




Boutiques and restaurants will be open all day and into the evening. There will not be any "bars" or "nightclubs" but you will be able to sit outside or in and listen to music and have a drink.

One of the main draws in the summer will be the concert shell and EXPO like environment with buskers in and around the park making it a joyous and interesting place.

In the winter you have both the arena, concert events and Soccer Dome bringing in a continuous flow of people plus tourists. Winter events will be Winterlude events, x-country skiing, indoor gym in the North Stands salon space plus the regular Granville Island like mix of interesting local business.

A destination site like Granville Island, that promotes local business and farmers and artists. Granville Island brings in 10M visitors per year. We anticipate 1/2 of that in our first year, the inaugural 2014 that includes the FIFA WU20.

[lpc]

The timeline is a 30 month construction timeline for the whole park. OSEG currently accepts that, NBBJ ( with over 60 years experience in large project completion ) has planned 30 months.

The RFP guidelines are already established. To write it up would take staff no longer than a few weeks and release it by early April.

That means a decision by the end of June.

The NCC and Park Canada do not participate in the RFP. They are partners on the outside for ease of access. The Lansdowne project is restricted to City owned property, there is no overlap and both Federal agencies are on record as supporting whatever the City decides.

So by the end of June or first week of July or even first week of August simply add 30 months of construction. You are ready with the entire park by February 2014, way ahead of schedule for FIFA.

Firms typically need less than 40 days for an RFP and for even larger projects than Lansdowne Park.

You can keep looking for exscuses to try and avoid an RFP but it appears inevitable.

And clearly the earlier the better.

Enough foot dragging and saying "can't".

Of course it can be done.

We need positive outlook for our City and Nation's Capital.

Competitive bidding is better for the taxpayer and an RFP stops the divisive litigation.

As also mentioned before, we could find ourselves after a court outcome being told we have to have an RFP. But by then you have lost 4 months.

Waiting for the court outcome is the real threat to losing the chance to host the world at FIFA WU20 and FIFA WWC 2015.

Time to start using some common sense and work for what is best for the taxpayer, Lansdowne Park our City and our Nation's Capital.

[lpc]

Quite simply people come to beautiful places.

Keeping the park in scale and with a balance of interesting shops, boutiques, markets, recreation, entertainment and sporting opportunities is how you attract people.

Think of Lansdowne Park as an EXPO and you will be closer to the reasons why the site will bring in many more people than a site with large towers and 10 story commercial buildings.

Think of Granville Island that has no towers or large commercial and has 10 million visitors per year and you will begin to understand the power of cultural economics.

People want a destination environment and that is the foundation upon which the Conservancy philosophy is based.

Beauty, space, interest, local business, artisan, farmers, recreation, entertainment, sports, nourishment, the arts.

The essential ingredients of a well attended site.

[lpc]

Permanent roof structures for the Farmer's Market in trees and shade:


Note Horticulture Building in original location.

[lpc]

The $300M Conservancy challenge to the OSEG Developer's

The Lansdowne Park Conservancy challenges the OSEG partnership to a competitive bid contest for best value for the taxpayer for the development of Lansdowne Park.

The Conservancy is so confidant that if it cannot prove a minimum $300M advantage to the taxpayer it will withdraw its bid.

The requirements are as follows:

A 24,000 seat stadium expandable to 45,000 on a temporary basis for large events.
A strengthened and rejuvenated North Stands/Arena with improved access and retail areas
A Green Space
A Revenue/Retail Model
A Management/Governance Model
A construction completion time of 30 months.

Additional points awarded to those bids that neatly avoid heritage, zoning, environmental and traffic issues.

All firms, consortium's welcome.

[lpc]

The real risk to losing the hosting of the FIFA World Cup events is waiting until the court ruling in July/August.

A court ordered RFP at that late date is a very real possibility. Starting an RFP in September is the real risk to losing the hosting opportunity of FIFA events.

The wise leader does not gamble on the courts.

Having an RFP now gives a 5 month head start on the process and ensures the stadium and park will be ready on time for FIFA 2014.

[lpc]

The beauty of the Conservancy proposal is that the CFL will be part of it.

No matter who develops the park and stadium the CFL franchise is already committed contractually to the City if the City provides a stadium.

If the OSEG plan has any merit it will withstand a competitive process. Their lack of willingness to a competitive process seems to confirm the impression that it is not in the best interests of the City of Ottawa.

Lets get moving on Lansdowne Park, the only hold up is the developer group being unwilling to enter a competitive process.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

You don't need two threads.

[matty14]

Originally Posted by lpc

The beauty of the Conservancy proposal is that the CFL will be part of it.

No matter who develops the park and stadium the CFL franchise is already committed contractually to the City if the City provides a stadium.

And the owner of the team would be...

[Cre47]

Still, the vast majority of nights outside CFL games, it would be a dead zone. The OSEG plan will bring a lot more life to the area. Greenspace and a farmer's market will not bring nearly as much life as the OSEG proposal as long as there won't be any casinos, Wal-Mart's and other large big-box suburban crap. Whole Foods such be a good fit for the area as well as the cinema, and let's add restaurants a la Boston Pizza, The Keg's Steakhouse or Local Heroes/Cage-aux-Sports type with a couple of bars that could have smaller music venues maybe similar to Barrymore's that would could fit smaller rock/pop bands/acts .

Also would the Conservancy be able to manage a pro-football team? Your plan has no chance of being a reality.

I say drop this non-sense and get on with construction NOW! Enough of the delays. Already, this might push back the return of the CFL for one year.

[S-Man]

I agree with Cre. While the proposal is very pretty, it will be a dead zone for most of the day/year. There just isn't anything to keep people there in big enough numbers at any time. It's like the garden of the provinces on Wellington St., across from the national library. Beautiful space, but no reason to go there unless you're just passing by. And no one is 'just passing by' in that location.
And I don't see a reason for a new Conservancy thread except for the fact that someone "new" (which I doubt) wants to post six times in a row about the same thing. We're not Pavlov's dogs. Repetition will not condition us to like the Conservancy plan.

[lpc]

Originally Posted by matty14

And the owner of the team would be...

The owners of the team will remain as Jeff Hunt and John Ruddy, Roger Greenberg and Bill Shenkman.

[lpc]

Originally Posted by Cre47

Still, the vast majority of nights outside CFL games, it would be a dead zone. The OSEG plan will bring a lot more life to the area. Greenspace and a farmer's market will not bring nearly as much life as the OSEG proposal as long as there won't be any casinos, Wal-Mart's and other large big-box suburban crap. Whole Foods such be a good fit for the area as well as the cinema, and let's add restaurants a la Boston Pizza, The Keg's Steakhouse or Local Heroes/Cage-aux-Sports type with a couple of bars that could have smaller music venues maybe similar to Barrymore's that would could fit smaller rock/pop bands/acts .

Also would the Conservancy be able to manage a pro-football team? Your plan has no chance of being a reality.

I say drop this non-sense and get on with construction NOW! Enough of the delays. Already, this might push back the return of the CFL for one year.

There is actually similar amounts of green space under the Conservancy and the OSEG plan. Where the developer plan has underutilized green space behind the stadium , the Conservancy has easy access and out of the way surface parking.

The philosophy of the Conservancy is to promote local business and local farmers in order to keep and circulate the profits in our area, thereby stimulating and promoting the local economy.

There will be a wide range of places to shop and dine and the Conservancy will have similar amounts of ground floor retail space to the OSEG plan. Total retail space under the Conservancy is 110,000 sq/ft. However the highest the retail will go under the Conservancy is two floors.

While there will be a variety of places to have a drink either inside or out (on patios and including pubs, wine bars serving food) we do not plan to see bars or nightclubs. Places that serve alcohol will have to serve food.

The Conservancy also keeps the Soccer Dome, home to 9,000 active players plus their families and friends.

The Conservancy will not be managing the football team, that will be left to the ownership of the CFL franchise.

As is the historical precedent, Lansdowne Park will provide the stadium and field where the team will play.

We agree that it is time for the project to get under way and the earlier the better, however the only delay at this point is the City.

There is litigation preventing the developer led proposal. The only stumbling block is an open competitive process, or RFP. In our opinion it would be better to have the RFP now and get it over with rather than wait and possibly be in a position in September to have an RFP as ordered by the court. You gain 5 months and the crucial summer construction season by having the RFP now.

The Conservancy plan has put forth a challenge to the City of Ottawa and the developers that if we cannot demonstrate that our non-profit management proposal with world renowned stadium design firm NBBJ will save taxpayers $300M then we will voluntarily drop our registered competitive bid.

This is not about doing it on the cheap, in fact the Conservancy bid spends $48M on the South Stands where the OEG bid spends $39M. This is about building smart and returning all profits to pay off the initial investment.

[lpc]

Originally Posted by S-Man

I agree with Cre. While the proposal is very pretty, it will be a dead zone for most of the day/year. There just isn't anything to keep people there in big enough numbers at any time. It's like the garden of the provinces on Wellington St., across from the national library. Beautiful space, but no reason to go there unless you're just passing by. And no one is 'just passing by' in that location.
And I don't see a reason for a new Conservancy thread except for the fact that someone "new" (which I doubt) wants to post six times in a row about the same thing. We're not Pavlov's dogs. Repetition will not condition us to like the Conservancy plan.

As mentioned in the previous reply, the OSEG plan has more green space than the Conservancy, but much of it under utilized behind the stadium, where we have provided surface parking.

The numbers from our studies have indicated the site will be very popular. There is a mistaken belief that you need density to have activity. The reverses is true. An example would be Granville Island in Vancouver. No high rises, no large multi story commercial areas and the location has been an extremely popular place for people to shop and seek entertainment for years. Visits to Granville Island last year were 10M. The Conservancy anticipates about half that in its inaugural year of 2014, the summer we welcome the world for the FIFA Women's World Cup U20.

Like Granville Island, Lansdowne park is surrounded on two sides by water and adjacent to a bridge. The EXPO like atmosphere at Granville Island with buskers, musicians and entertainment supported with a wide variety of local business including hand made local products, locally grown food and restaurants and places to eat is exactly the type of environment we see also being popular at Lansdowne Park and will not only draw more to our city in tourism but also increase our quality of life by supporting our own.

This new thread was started after a technical glitch on the other thread as outlined in the introduction or first message.

Official replies from the Conservancy will only be posted here.

[lpc]

Approach to Aberdeen and retail in Colisseum and North Stands.

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Good Gravy and Biscuit Christ, stop posting the same crap over and over again. Go away, John. You already have one thread for your fantasy; you don't need another one.





(Where the hell are the mods?)

[lpc]

To repeat this is the only thread being commented on by the Conservancy.

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