Ottawa Senators, National Capital Commission, reach agreement in principle for new downtown arena

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It is the Canadian Field of Dreams.

At other times, of nightmares.

LeBreton Flats, a swath of rubble and contaminated soil, lies within earshot – okay, cannon shot – of Parliament Hill, slightly north and west along the Ottawa River. The Flats are named after Lt. John LeBreton (1779-1848), a hero of the War of 1812, who purchased the land in 1820 and figured to cash in big when the soon-to-be-constructed Rideau Canal went through his property. It didn’t, the engineers choosing instead to have the canal empty into the Ottawa just east of the Peace Tower.

LeBreton is remembered, if at all, as a swindler of the first order.

The Flats became home to a series of lumber mills, factories and working-class housing. The roughshod community was destroyed by fire in 1900 and largely rebuilt, though never with much success. The Flats were eventually expropriated and cleared in the 1960s, falling under the control of the National Capital Commission. For decades, the vacant land was largely used as a snow-removal dump for the city, a factor that contributed greatly to the contamination of the soil.

Various plans came and went – it was briefly seen as a site for the new National Defence Headquarters, which went elsewhere – and remained largely abandoned and empty until early this century when the Canadian War Museum and, later, the National Holocaust Monument were constructed.

Nine years ago, the NCC asked for submissions to redevelop a 21-hectare (52-acre) section of the Flats. Four groups were quick to apply, and in 2016 it was announced that RendezVous LeBreton Group, a partnership between the Ottawa Senators, then owned by Eugene Melnyk, and locally owned Trinity Developments, had won the bid. Their plans included a $4-billion development that would include a new $600-million hockey rink, 4,000 housing units, hotels, parks, retail space, a library and other recreational facilities.

Two years later, it all fell apart when the partners squabbled over plans, the once-happy marriage dissolving into a $700-million lawsuit launched by Melnyk and his partners against Trinity Development. The suit was eventually settled.

This week, the Field of Dreams is back.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of new ownership for the Senators, the unpredictable Melnyk having passed away and new ownership under Michael Andlauer having taken over the franchise at a cost of nearly $1-billion.

Friday afternoon at the Senators’ current facility, the 28-year-old Canadian Tire Centre, which was built in a Kanata cornfield far west of the downtown core, NCC chief Tobi Nussbaum and Senators president Cyril Leeder held a news conference to confirm that the field is, once again, in play.

This time, though, the rules are quite different.

In the previous (and failed) round of negotiations, the NCC was to lease the land to the winning group. Now the NCC says it is willing to sell the land, “at fair market value” to the Senators. In the first go at this, the winning group would get six acres (2.4 hectares) of land for building and development. Now it is almost doubled to more than 10 acres (4+ hectares) allowing for far more parking and retail potential.

There is a commitment for 6,000 new homes, 25 per cent of which will be deemed “affordable housing.” As the land in question is unceded territory, the Algonquin Nation has been, and will continue to be, involved in all negotiations.

Once the contaminated soil has been dealt with, the two sides are agreed to work toward a “world-class” environmental commitment. Two aqueducts will provide water access for recreational usage.

The decision to move “downtown,” Leeder said, is to join the North American trend to move major sports facilities out of the suburbs and, whenever possible, closer to the downtown core. He said he hopes the relocation can serve as a “catalyst” for re-energizing the downtown cores of both Ottawa and the Quebec City of Gatineau. Giving francophone fans easier and quicker access to NHL hockey is also a major factor.

“It’s a great first step,” Leeder said, “but there’s a lot of work to do.”

There is, as yet, no design plan nor any cost estimate for either the land or the rink – now obviously far beyond the $600-million cost that was estimated in 2016. Nor is there an estimated completion date, though those close to the discussions are hoping to move the team to the new facility by 2030.

“There’s a lot of lifting to be done,” Leeder said. “It’s years, not months, before a shovel gets in the ground.”

The NCC is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and the commission considers itself stewards of vast federal properties, from official residences to various parks, for spans of 50 to 100 years. Selling off assets is unusual. “We made an exception for this,” Nussbaum said.

There are, of course, concerns raised. Will Ottawa taxpayers be expected to pay a portion, as has so often been the case in the building of other NHL rinks, most recently Edmonton?

“I don’t think so,” Leeder told the gathering.

There is also the looming question handed over to them from that 1989 film, Field of Dreams – “If you build it, they will come.”

That will depend partly on the parking, which should be ample, but also Ottawa’s troubled Light Rail Transit, which has had endless problems because of cold weather, when hockey is traditionally played.

That said, there was far more optimism at this agreement in principle than there has been at any past revival of Lt. John LeBreton’s infamous plot of land.

As Leeder put it Friday afternoon: “Everybody wants this to happen.”