It has been one year since the Ottawa Senators announced it was buying 11 acres of land at Lebreton Flats from the National Capital Commission to build a new downtown arena. If you were to take a look at the site, it appears not much has happened in the last 12 months. But the Ottawa Senators say much work has been taking place behind the scenes in preparation of putting shovels in the ground. “It may not seem that way, but we are making progress,” team president and CEO Cyril Leeder told CTV News Ottawa on Monday. “We’re working with the Algonquin Nation. We mentioned this back in March that we’re working on a partnership, they’re going to be neighbors here. “We’ve also been doing our basic due diligence on the site. It’s a 15-acre large site downtown between two LRT stations, it’s contaminated, it’s a tight site to work on. So, there’s a bunch of necessary due diligence that had to take place there.” To Sens fans, the lack of visual progress may be frustrating. Leeder says coordination between the city of Ottawa, NCC, developers, and Indigenous groups has been taking place regularly. He says two things need to take place before the Senators organization can get their hands on the site: the relocation of services – such as hydro and sewers – which Leeder estimates will take at least a year, and the remediation of contaminated soil, which will be another massive undertaking. “We think the majority of the excavation is contaminated,” said Leeder. “What our studies are showing us, it’s over 500,000m³ of soil that has to be taken off the site. That’s probably a steady stream of trucks on and off the site for 16 months.” Leeder says that a 16-month timeline could be accelerated if additional access points to the Lebreton Flats grounds are made available. Currently, there are just two access points and it would take more coordination with the city. Optimistically, it’s a little over two years before construction starts the actual building process on the site. The first phase of construction will be the underground parking. Leeder says the organization is looking at installing 3,500 to 5,000 underground parking spots. It also has plans for additional parking at off-site locations in coordination with the NCC. “You’ve got to put in all the parking much the way Lansdowne is. The whole site needs to be built first,” explains Leeder. “It’s going to take a year or so to get that out of the ground. And then you’ve got a fairly long build for a new arena. It’s, best guess, 30 to 36 months for the arena itself.” While laying out the time frames each step could take, the team’s CEO says they are not ready to lay out a timeline just yet. Leeder estimates all previously mentioned steps in the five-to-six-year timeframe, if work were to begin tomorrow. “We’re hopeful in the new year that we’ll be able to do two things: one, have a real schedule and timeline when we get started, and when we finish would take place, and two, have some plans that we can start sharing with people.” Leeder says no final price tag has been put on the project, with a goal of working on financing in six to 12 months. “My message is it will be worth it. It’s a very important project not only for us, but we think for the community.”
