Ottawa city council has approved a plan to reinvigorate the downtown Lansdowne Park.

The announcement came earlier this month, and sees the city plan for the construction of a new mid-size event centre, new north-side stadium stands, a two-storey retail space and two residential towers. It also provides funds for affordable housing.

The city says the existing Civic Centre arena and north-side stands of TD Place stadium are functionally obsolete and will not be able to live up to their intended use in the future. Maintaining them would require costly, ongoing repairs to fix a growing number of deficiencies.

The city hopes that in replacing them, they will become accessible and the environmental impact of operating the building will be reduced.

The arena is currently the least energy efficient city-owned facility. In addition, the city and its partner – the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) – will draw more major events to Ottawa, increasing potential City revenues and supporting Lansdowne businesses.

The new event centre will accommodate nearly 4,700 general admission seats, and capacity increases to 5,500 for Ottawa 67s hockey games and 6,500 for concerts.

The proposed north-side stands reduce current seating capacity from 14,000 to 11,000 but includes standing room for an additional 900.

The approved plan also proposes two residential towers with maximum heights of 40 storeys. Limiting redevelopment to two towers will ensure the site can accommodate about 2,600 square metres of new public space adjacent to Aberdeen Pavilion. The two-storey retail building would include about 4,550 square metres of commercial space.

The city’s total capital cost is estimated at about $419 million, but taxpayers will pay only about one third of that – around $146 million.

Council carried several motions to further refine the Lansdowne plan, including:

• working with OSEG to develop a social procurement framework to help increase opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups through the project,
• assessing the feasibility of possible new active transportation infrastructure, and
• working with OSEG to consider options for including a roof over the new north side stands.