Lansdowne Park Could Get A Total Makeover With New Homes & An Updated Arena
The project is expected to be completed by 2029.
Lansdowne 2.0 rendering.
An Ottawa committee has approved the next steps for a complete makeover at Lansdowne Park, home to one of the city's major events arenas.
On Friday, the city's Finance and Economic Development Committee approved the next step in Lansdowne 2.0, which could see the park getting a new 5,500-seat arena to replace the original 55-year-old one, which currently seats around 10,000 spectators. It will be home to the Ottawa 67's and the Ottawa BlackJacks.
The park will also see new north stadium stands accommodating roughly 12,000 fans, a green roof and a two-storey retail centre. This 100,000-square-foot mixed-use retail centre would replace the existing arena and attached retail space, adding 59,000 more square feet of retail. The plan also proposed to add 1,200 residential units in three towers located above the new retail centre.
TD Place said the new residential units will be "affordable" and solidify Lansdowne as a "15-minute neighbourhood."
The successful redevelopment of #Lansdowne brings in 4M annual visitors. Lansdowne has become a proven gathering place for #Ottawa.\n\nWe\u2019re committed to making the rest of Lansdowne just as successful. \n\nLansdowne 2.0 is our proposed roadmap: https://bit.ly/3LQylNN\u00a0pic.twitter.com/861MsvRGxZ— TD Place (@TD Place) 1651852829
But previous condo owners at Lansdowne Park aren't all convinced. Some have taken to social media saying the park's original condo buildings had unignorable hiccups. They also criticize the project for not getting enough feedback from people who live in the city.
Lansdowne 2.0 is part of a decades-old partnership between the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group. The project was developed in hopes of drawing in larger crowds to its music concerts and sporting events, which have seen a decrease in attendance over the last few years.
The park's new renovations are estimated to cost upwards of $330 million, but the City of Ottawa says the project won't cost Ottawans a penny.
Instead, the city says the park will be funded through the sale of "air rights," debt funding and the city's capital budget. To pay off the interest on the project, money will also come from the property tax uplift and a portion of ticket sales.
Ottawa will further discuss the Lansdowne makeover at a council meeting on May 25.
TD Place estimates that the whole of the Lansdowne 2.0 project will likely be complete by 2029, with the event centre phase being completed as early as 2025.