Lansdowne Live has met council's conditions, Greenberg says
By Joanne Chianello and David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen May 27, 2010 10:02 AM
OTTAWA — The proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Park has met all the conditions city council set when it gave a tentative go-ahead last fall, says the project's front man, and there's no reasonable way for the city to bail out now.
Roger Greenberg, the head of the Minto group of development and property-management companies, kicked off a day of salesmanship for the project with a speech to a group of tech executives at Scotiabank Place Thursday morning. In the afternoon, at 1 p.m. at Carleton University, he's to reveal his group's designs for a stadium and a large retail complex to be built on the west side of the Glebe site, which is now home to a little-used stadium, mouldering heritage buildings, and acres upon acres of asphalt parking lot.
Concerns about the design, traffic impacts, and the effects on the existing economy of the Glebe have been addressed in good faith, Greenberg said.
The design of the stadium and retail elements are likely key to gaining or losing public and political support for the plan, which will require hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, in addition to an investment from Greenberg and his partners.
"I don't want to lose money on this project," Greenberg told a breakfast meeting organized by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. "It's not charity, but we will not be making a killing."
No reasonable investor would take Lansdowne Live on as a moneymaker, he said. As it stands, he and his partners stand to make "a modest return."
An expert jury, sponsored by the city, is meanwhile considering plans for a park and more public uses on the east side of the property. City council is to take a final vote in June.
If council approves the plan and it doesn't get halted by appeals to courts or the Ontario Municipal Board, Greenberg said, shovels could be in the ground by the end of 2010.
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