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Councillors are preparing for marathon meetings on Lansdowne 2.0, a plan to save the urban entertainment site from financial oblivion.
Home to sports teams, restaurants, music festivals and a farmers’ market, Lansdowne Park has struggled to make the City of Ottawa and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group any money.
The public-private partnership is now vying for council’s support for a new revamp. But if the 72 public delegations who signed up before Tuesday morning to speak on the subject are any indication, the public’s not convinced.
The site has been prone to controversies over the course of its history, including audits, a failed attempt for a Supreme Court challenge, and crumbling infrastructure.
Here’s what you need to know to get up to speed.
The basics
Before the redevelopment, Lansdowne Park was little more than a gated parking lot. The project to redevelop it was sole-sourced, coming directly from the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) — a fact that led to an unsuccessful legal challenge.
OSEG leases the city’s land and facilities, excluding the Horticulture Building and Aberdeen Pavilion, for $1 annually. The city retains ownership of the Civic Centre, stadium, retail spaces and parking garage.
The city’s partnership includes four revenue streams, from the Redblacks football franchise, the Ottawa 67s hockey team, the arena and the stores and restaurants that lease retail space.
Any income made through the partnership is distributed using a complex closed financial system, whereby OSEG is repaid for expenses before the city gets a return on its investment.
No money has ever been paid out.
When the deal’s financial difficulties became exacerbated by the pandemic, city council voted to extend the partnership by 10 years.
What’s changed
OSEG pitched an initial version of the Lansdowne 2.0 plan well over a year ago, promising a “tax-neutral” solution to recurring moneymaking problems.
It relied on the creation of three residential towers, which would surround new north-side stands.
But when the latest iteration of the plan was unveiled, one tower was dropped — along with any promises to be revenue neutral.
The overall price tag also jumped by $86 million to $419 million, with taxpayers providing $5 million annually.
Key to the plan’s marketing is the suggestion that if the plan is not approved, OSEG could drop out of the partnership. Staff also suggest that failing to replace the aging north-side stands and Civic Centre will create a drain on municipal coffers, as big-ticket events opt to take their business elsewhere.
The plan includes $3.9 million for affordable housing, which will no longer be built on site.
That’s well below the 25 per cent the city is meant to allocate when it sells off municipal land or air rights, with the report citing that this “reduces the negative impacts on the overall financial model.”
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