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Melnyk plans ‘entertainment village’
Project would include offices, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels for area near Senators’ arena
[i]OTTAWA — The company that runs the Ottawa Senators, and wants to see a stadium for professional soccer built next to the Senators’ arena, intends to build offices, restaurants, bars, apartments, and even a couple of hotels on the property it owns around the arena.
Eugene Melnyk’s company, Senators Sports and Entertainment, wants to build on to its existing recreation hub — Scotiabank Place and the Sensplex nearby — by seeing the city build a stadium that would house a Major League Soccer franchise, creating an “entertainment village? that would attract something in the order of four million visits a year.
In tandem with that project, the Senators organization plans to build somewhere between 900,000 square feet and 1.5-million square feet of office space, between 300,000 square feet and 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment building, and up to 450 residential units.
The development would occur on about 30 hectares of land around Scotiabank Place, including four hectares that the company is in the process of purchasing. The land is bordered by the Queensway to the north, Palladium Drive to the south and Huntmar Drive on the west. The development would be carried out in stages, with the first stage worth about $120 million, built around the same time as the proposed stadium.
Cyril Leeder, chief operating officer of the Senators organization, said that it only makes sense to add some different kinds of development to make that part of Kanata more of a community — where there’s a mix of people working in offices, working in stores and restaurants and living nearby. He said that adding a substantial amount of office space is an efficient use of parking because daytime office workers usually leave in time for nighttime visitors for entertainment such as hockey and concerts.
One of the features of the proposed stadium is a permanent stage for concerts that could entertain up to 30,000 spectators.
Part of the plan is that the Scotiabank site would see construction of parking garages so that some of the existing parking lots — 8,000 spaces around the arena —could be the sites of the buildings.
Mr. Leeder noted that the proposed developments, which could total $500 million when complete, date from the original vision of Senators founder Bruce Firestone, who two decades ago wanted to build a community called West Terrace on 200 hectares around the NHL arena.
That vision included millions of square feet of office space, several thousands homes and retail space the sized of the Rideau Centre.
It was put on hold when the approval of the NHL hockey arena on farmland in Kanata West was fought at the Ontario Municipal Board. Mr. Firestone pledged not to build the community around the arena for 25 years. His dream of an NHL team playing at a new arena became reality, but he eventually lost control of his firm and the team due to financial problems.
Eventually, Rod Bryden, Mr. Firestone’s successor, pushed for development of the property and Ottawa Council agreed, approving a development plan for lands all around the arena. Development has recently been stalled by controversy over possible flooding of the Carp River. Landowners in Kanata West nevertheless feel development around the NHL arena is inevitable.
Mr. Leeder says that all of the building of transportation links to Scotiabank Place — including the current expansion of the Queensway, the building of an extra highway interchange and Palladium Drive — amounts to $150 million worth of roadwork that should be used for more than just trips to hockey games and other events at Scotiabank Place.
Geoff Publow, director of strategic development for the Senators, said that the idea of “entertainment villages,? with residential and commercial development surrounding pro sports facilities, is becoming a popular style of development around North America.
“You have sport entertainment. The city grows around it,? says Mr. Leeder. “Mass gives you more. It makes a lot of sense to put these assets together.?[/i]