Ottawa mayor wants to ensure TD Place north stand reconstruction doesn’t cost taxpayers
Posted Jul 7, 2021 09:09:13 PM.
Ottawa City Council is directing staff to look at how they could go about demolishing the Civic Centre and completely rebuilding the 54-year-old north-side stands at TD Place in Lansdowne.
Nearly a decade ago, the city rebuilt the south-side stands at TD Place and urban park, which included renovating the Horticulture Building and Aberdeen Pavilion, and it ended up costing Ottawans around $210-million.
“We probably, in hindsight, should have done the north-side stands and civic centre renovations at the same time,” says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. “We probably should have did it all at once, but for a variety of reasons including the north-side stands still being relatively in good shape and could last another 10 years, as they did, and then obviously financial difficulties at the time as well.”
Watson says Ottawa city staff is being directed to report on the cost of reconstructing the north side and arena, how it would be completed, and most importantly, how to ensure that the project's cost doesn't fall on to the taxpayers.
“My greatest priority is to secure as much funding [as possible], from everything from air rights, to ticket surcharge and so on, as opposed to seeking tax dollars,” Watson says. “Will there be a requirement for some use of tax dollars in the event of a short-fall? That's obviously one of the options that we have to look at because when you own the facility, you also own the responsibility to maintain it.”
However, the mayor says the advantage of splitting the repairs between ten years-ago and now is that the city now has a better understanding of the challenges at Lansdowne and can take steps to improve the area.
“We recognize now that we need more people to live on the site, that's why we're also looking into housing opportunities both market and affordable,” he says.
Watson adds, what makes that area of the city particularly difficult to do construction in is that everything is connected to each other, so when one building section needs repairs, they all do. One piece of real estate the city wants to convert into housing units is attached directly to the north-side TD Place stands.
