Both bids are spectacular. They really are.
The National Capital Commission asked for big ideas for the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats and both RendezVous LeBreton and DevCore DLS delivered in a big way. The vision and imagination that went into these proposals has the potential to completely transform our Nation’s Capital over the next decade.
But for me, one of these two bids stands out.
And that’s because I feel like one of these bids goes beyond a hockey arena. One of these bids offers a variety of other things to do.
The band-shell, the communications centre, the car museum, the beer museum, the urban beach, the aquarium, the planetarium, the air pavilion, the skate park, the indoor wave pool,. All of that AND a downtown arena. Yes, these are big ideas and I think that what draws me to the DCDLS bid. They’re swinging for the fences and that’s what I like about it.
Maybe they’ve overdone it a little bit? I’ve seen that suggested in some places and it may be the case. But in this instance, I think I prefer that to playing it safe.
Beyond what the DCDLS proposal offers, it’s also about what the RendezVous LeBreton concept lacks. And simply put, that’s major attractions other than a downtown arena. Try as I might, I can’t get excited about the possibility of new condos, neighbourhoods, shopping districts and green space. I mean, I believe they’re important but they don’t draw me in the way some of the other flashy LeBreton Re-imagined ideas do. Honestly, I don’t even know what an Aqueduct is. Holograms? Neat obviously but not really a huge draw for me.
From an architectural and general layout standpoint, I think the RendezVous LeBreton bid may have an edge. Looking closely at both proposals there were definitely times when I was thinking, yup the Illumination LeBreton concept definitely LOOKS better. But I just kept coming back to this idea that I don’t really know what I’d do there. And it’s an issue with a lot of Ottawa actually. It looks great but there isn’t necessarily anything you can do there other than comment on how nice it looks.
In my review of the proposals, I didn’t look too closely at the transit plans of each bid. I sort of assume that in both instances, it’s going to be such a huge upgrade over what we currently have for transit in this city that I had a hard time being swayed by which group had the better plan for the light rail. In both instances, I don’t have to travel 40 minutes to get to a hockey game and that’s really all I need to know. Although others have already started to point out the transit concerns that exist in both bids.
I kept trying to just look at this as a citizen of Ottawa rather than as a hockey fan. But as you might have guessed, that wasn’t easy.
The possibility of two of multi-billionaires owning the Ottawa Senators is kind of intriguing. Where the rest of you see concern about the future of the Senators in Ottawa if the DCDLS bid wins, I can’t help but see opportunity. I know Eugene Melnyk has been very clear that he would never ever, ever sell the team. It just seems that if the DCDLS group wins the bid, that could change.
If this other group was to win the bid, they would obviously have a bit of leverage. By making the timeline for their arena flexible, they would be in no rush to start construction and they could get started on the other parts of their multi-billion dollar proposal. They even said Melnyk could own the arena down there if he wanted. Suddenly Eugene Melnyk would have to start thinking about a Plan B. Renovate the CTC (Nine figure renos by his own estimate), build a new rink in Kanata (good luck finding support for that), build and own the rink at LeBreton or sell the team for a ridiculous profit to a group of suddenly motivated buyers.
And I’ve seen this a few times but if you’re worried about these guys with Montreal links buying the team and moving it to Quebec City…don’t be. These businessmen and women are not going to back a billion dollar real estate development deal and then leave with one of its centre pieces. Not gonna happen. Especially when you consider the strong links to the city within the DCDLS bid.
The league would never allow Ottawa to move for a whole host of reasons including the fact that they too see the potential of a downtown arena in Ottawa and they would miss out on that $500,000,000 expansion fee. I could write a whole article about why this shouldn’t be a concern for Sens fans but I’ll just leave it at that.
I don’t think there’s any significant risk to the Ottawa Senators franchise with either outcome in the LeBreton process. I’m not positive on that but based on everything we’ve heard, I just think (or hope) that both these proposals offer a bright future for the franchise. Maybe the path downtown is a little less bumpy with the RendezVous LeBreton bid but I firmly believe the Senators are going to end up downtown, either way. And within a similar time frame.
The National Capital Commission has a tough decision to make but in the end they need to look at these proposals for what they offer and not concern themselves with the uncertainty that comes with the DevCore DLS bid.
This isn’t about trying to convince you to favour one bid over the other. And I would happily listen to arguments on why I’m wrong because until last night, I was directly on the fence. In the end, this won’t be a public decision anyway and it’s going to come down to the clearly established criteria set out by the NCC. Personally, I’ll be thrilled to see the NCC go forward with either one of these proposals.
As a resident of Hintonburg, the idea of all this being in my backyard is pretty damn exciting.
I just think the future of our Nation’s Capital is just a little bit more exciting if it’s the DCDLS group that wins the bid.
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The detailed proposals can be seen here
