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Thursday was a great day for Ottawa Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk and for hockey fans who don’t live in the west end. For everyone else, the latest development in the LeBreton Flats saga was a lot less earthshaking than the National Capital Commission’s self-congratulatory tone would suggest.
NCC staff and board members were full of praise for the process that might ultimately lead to a hockey rink downtown, but surely the point is that all this process has produced the most modest plan imaginable for this significant piece of federal land in the heart of the capital.
The NCC wanted a central element of national stature. Instead it might get a hockey rink and a bunch of offices, condos and retail. Let’s not kid ourselves: There is nothing of national significance about that. This is a decent city-building project, but it won’t even be a blip on the national radar.
Much was said Thursday about the splendour of the two plans submitted to the NCC, but one suspects this was mostly an attempt to create the impression that there is a viable alternative as the NCC tries to squeeze more money out of Melnyk and his team.
Realistically, the proposal by Melnyk and his partners was the only rational choice available. The rival plan from a Quebec-based consortium was so full of hot air that it’s a wonder it didn’t lift off and drift into space.
That proposal has every kind of geegaw imaginable and some that are not. There would be a beer museum, a car museum, a news museum, an aquarium, a skate park, and a planetarium. Even the hockey rink was billed as “The Theatre of Sports and Entertainment.”
It would be a great plan, in Niagara Falls.
NCC evaluators wisely questioned the sustainability of the multi-museum plan, although they didn’t consider building an NHL hockey rink without an NHL hockey team an obvious deal-breaker.
The Melnyk plan, or RendezVous LeBreton as no one will call it, boils down to a variety of hockey-related uses, accompanied by a lot of housing, office space and retail. This is being sold as some kind of game-changer for downtown, but how often have you ever heard people here say “Boy, we sure need more condos and offices downtown?”
While all the talk is about hockey, the retail, housing and office components are where the money will be made, and what this is really all about. When the current Senators’ rink was built in Kanata, it was mostly a deal to enhance local land values. Here we go again.
It’s really a pity that what was supposed to be a big discussion about the future of the capital devolved into a small discussion about the future of the Senators. It’s not a surprise, though. The redevelopment of LeBreton was doomed to be a modest project from the outset of this latest NCC attempt to solve the age-old riddle of how to develop the Flats.
If something of national significance was to go on the site, it would almost certainly have to be built by the federal government. A less embarrassing science museum would have been the obvious choice. That didn’t attract the previous Conservative government, and the new Liberal government is spilling money just about everywhere except LeBreton.
Not to say that this LeBreton plan is bad. Pretty much anything is an improvement over the ugly scar that’s there now. We will get an improved arena that pretty much assures that the Senators will be in Ottawa for the long run. It’s also good to see the NCC working together on this with Ottawa and Gatineau. That makes sense.
While there is much work still to be done, we can be fairly confident that the Melnyk plan will go ahead. Both parties are highly motivated. The NCC wants to get LeBreton off its plate and Melnyk and his partners stand to make quite a lot of money. That ought to get the deal done.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa commentator, novelist and former Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com
查看原文...
NCC staff and board members were full of praise for the process that might ultimately lead to a hockey rink downtown, but surely the point is that all this process has produced the most modest plan imaginable for this significant piece of federal land in the heart of the capital.
The NCC wanted a central element of national stature. Instead it might get a hockey rink and a bunch of offices, condos and retail. Let’s not kid ourselves: There is nothing of national significance about that. This is a decent city-building project, but it won’t even be a blip on the national radar.
Much was said Thursday about the splendour of the two plans submitted to the NCC, but one suspects this was mostly an attempt to create the impression that there is a viable alternative as the NCC tries to squeeze more money out of Melnyk and his team.
Realistically, the proposal by Melnyk and his partners was the only rational choice available. The rival plan from a Quebec-based consortium was so full of hot air that it’s a wonder it didn’t lift off and drift into space.
That proposal has every kind of geegaw imaginable and some that are not. There would be a beer museum, a car museum, a news museum, an aquarium, a skate park, and a planetarium. Even the hockey rink was billed as “The Theatre of Sports and Entertainment.”
It would be a great plan, in Niagara Falls.
NCC evaluators wisely questioned the sustainability of the multi-museum plan, although they didn’t consider building an NHL hockey rink without an NHL hockey team an obvious deal-breaker.
The Melnyk plan, or RendezVous LeBreton as no one will call it, boils down to a variety of hockey-related uses, accompanied by a lot of housing, office space and retail. This is being sold as some kind of game-changer for downtown, but how often have you ever heard people here say “Boy, we sure need more condos and offices downtown?”
While all the talk is about hockey, the retail, housing and office components are where the money will be made, and what this is really all about. When the current Senators’ rink was built in Kanata, it was mostly a deal to enhance local land values. Here we go again.
It’s really a pity that what was supposed to be a big discussion about the future of the capital devolved into a small discussion about the future of the Senators. It’s not a surprise, though. The redevelopment of LeBreton was doomed to be a modest project from the outset of this latest NCC attempt to solve the age-old riddle of how to develop the Flats.
If something of national significance was to go on the site, it would almost certainly have to be built by the federal government. A less embarrassing science museum would have been the obvious choice. That didn’t attract the previous Conservative government, and the new Liberal government is spilling money just about everywhere except LeBreton.
Not to say that this LeBreton plan is bad. Pretty much anything is an improvement over the ugly scar that’s there now. We will get an improved arena that pretty much assures that the Senators will be in Ottawa for the long run. It’s also good to see the NCC working together on this with Ottawa and Gatineau. That makes sense.
While there is much work still to be done, we can be fairly confident that the Melnyk plan will go ahead. Both parties are highly motivated. The NCC wants to get LeBreton off its plate and Melnyk and his partners stand to make quite a lot of money. That ought to get the deal done.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa commentator, novelist and former Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com
查看原文...
