Mixed reception for Lansdowne 2.0 ahead of construction

Construction is set to begin for the controversial redevelopment, and as CTV’s Natalie van Rooy reports, the community response is mixed.

Construction for the controversial Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment is set to begin this week, and while some in the community are excited, others worry about the project won’t be worth its $418.8 million price tag.

Lindsey Carter has lived in the Glebe near Lansdowne for 20 years but she says the redevelopment project has her considering relocation.

“We’re thinking about moving out of the area because of everything going on,” Carter told CTV News.

The Ottawa resident says she’s worried about cost of the project, as well as the increase in traffic it may bring.

“If it doesn’t work out, we’re on the hook for that,” Carter said.

“We live on Fifth Avenue where with the traffic, we can hardly back out of our driveway on a Saturday. Now, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be when there there’s many more apartment buildings here.”

The city of Ottawa says construction starts this week with the first phase of the project focusing on the new event centre. Preliminary works will start with the installation of fencing followed by site trailer installation and exploratory works in December.

Nabil Imani, a vendor at Lansdowne, says markets in the area will have to adjust while construction is underway.

“We’ll just have to figure out how do we get through the initial process of relocating the farmers markets and how to keep ensuring that people are still coming and having foot traffic here,” Imani said.

Audrey Hicks, an Ottawa resident who frequents Lansdowne, hopes the city will build additional transit infrastructure to accommodate the changes.

“Well hopefully they keep up with the infrastructure then that would be great and if the train comes, that would be superb too,” Hicks said.

Lansdowne 2.0 includes a new event centre built to replace TD Place arena, new north-side stands for TD Place Stadium, and two residential towers with 770 units for condos.

Ottawa residents Matt and Melissa Marriner say they visit Lansdowne often and will be glad to see the project get underway.

“I love it,” said Matt. “I’m going to miss the old rink, but this new rink, it’s definitely time for it. I’m going to shed some tears when the older one closes.”

“It’s going to be great,” said Melissa. “I think it’s going to be great for everyone with the big change that’s coming. It’ll bring a lot more people down here.”

Planned changes to the arena that would reduce the number of seats in the building sparked reaction from the PWHL, who said the Ottawa Charge will not play in a smaller arena. Ottawa resident Greg Dennison says he hopes that doesn’t come to fruition.

“I don’t mind it, other than it would be nice to have a place for the Charge to play with the new arena,” said Greg Dennison, an Ottawa resident.

Construction of the new event centre is slated to be completed by 2028 with work on the north-side stands scheduled to be done by 2030.

The city says there are no planned detours or road closures for the first phase of construction and access to the underground parking garage will continue.

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