LeBreton Flats: How the Ottawa Senators’ new home got to this stage

From lumber mills to centre ice: a timeline of LeBreton Flats' history.

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Published Sep 20, 2024  •  6 minute read

Cyril Leeder, president and CEO of the Ottawa Senators, at Friday's joint news conference with the National Capital Commission to announce an agreement on the sale of land at LeBreton Flats, destined to become the home of the NHL franchise. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

LeBreton Flats is soon expected to be the site of a new arena to house the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators.

Before it was considered a hockey hotspot, the land at the heart of downtown Ottawa had a much more complicated history.

Pre-1900s

Before the arrival of European settlers, LeBreton Flats and the land around were home to Indigenous people. According to the Canadian Museum of History, during an expedition in June 1613, Samuel de Champlain wrote in his journal that Indigenous people held ceremonies at Chaudière Falls.

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By the 1870s, the area was the site of lumber mills as “early settlers sought to use the strong current of the Chaudière Falls to move massive quantities of lumber from a densely forested area.”

“With this industry came its horde of workers, who chose to establish their families near their workplaces,” said a blog post by Library and Archives Canada, which noted that the area was “impoverished” and mostly populated by Francophones, Irish and Italian people. “These were the principal elements that helped to shape the Flats.”

The Great Fire of 1900 in Ottawa-Hull: a photo take at 3 p.m. on April 26, 1900. Photo by City of Ottawa Archives /Handout

April 26, 1900

A massive fire erupted in Hull on April 26, 1900.

According to a fire study dated June 1962, the incident sparked from a defective chimney igniting a wood-shingled roof. The blaze spread quickly, destroying a post office, a church, a hotel, a courthouse and 15 stores. By the afternoon, it had caused a large flour mill and grain elevator to light on fire, also destroying dozens of establishments.

The City of Ottawa requested help from Montreal, Toronto, Brockville, Smiths Falls and Peterborough to deal with the fire, which “consumed all property of the Canadian Pacific Railway including the Union Station.”

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By the evening, the report stated, “the industrial section of the West End of Ottawa was gone,” with the fire destroying several homes and killing seven people. A total of 3,200 buildings were destroyed in Ottawa and Hull and “millions of board feet of lumber were burned.” More than 13,000 people were left homeless, with hundreds jobless.

Despite the fire, the neighbourhood was “quickly rebuilt and life picked up where it had left off,” Library and Archives Canada said.

Children play in a backyard in LeBreton Flats in the early 1960s as expropriation gets underway. Photo by Ottawa Citizen file photo

1962-1965

On April 18, 1962, the National Capital Commission issued a notice of expropriation to 2,800 residents of LeBreton Flats telling them that they, and their businesses, had to move due to accommodate plans to redevelop the land.

According to the Historical Society of Ottawa, “the decision to raze the neighbourhood was taken without public consultations, presumably to avoid land speculation. Even Ottawa’s mayor, Charlotte Whitton, was kept in the dark.” It said 53 acres of land was “forcibly acquired” from 240 landlords, with the government paying $17 million, deemed “fair market value” for the land. The area was completely cleared by October 1965.

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“The rationale for the expropriation was to eliminate ‘a real eye sore’ of deteriorating housing stock and dirty industry within walking distance of Parliament Hill,” said the Historical Society of Ottawa, which noted the area was supposed to house a new headquarters for the Department of National Defence, but that didn’t happen. “The NCC planned to transform the area into something worthy of a national capital, with the construction of up to 10 government buildings, along with monuments, parks and parkways.”

2003

After a series of planned and abandoned projects for the land, redevelopment finally began in 2003, 40 years after LeBreton Flats began sitting empty. The Canadian War Museum, which cost $135 million, opened to the public in 2005.

In the years that followed, housing and parks were constructed and talks about constructing a light rail transit station in the area began.

September 30, 2014

The National Capital Commission began its journey of finding a development partner for 9.3 acres of LeBreton Flats in September 2014, seeking “an architecturally stunning anchor institution of regional, national or international importance.”

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January 26, 2016

Two bids to develop LeBreton Flats were shared with the public, from RendezVous LeBreton and Devcore Canderel DLS Group. Both proposals included hockey arenas and “significant residential development.”

April 29, 2016

RendezVous LeBreton’s $3.5-billion bid to develop LeBreton Flats was selected, with management forecasting the new arena’s opening night for 2021. Later that year, in November, the NCC began formal negotiations with the group for a development agreement.

Eugene Melnyk, left, and John Ruddy, right, of RendezVous LeBreton listen to the NCC board of directors meeting in Ottawa on in January 2018. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

January 26, 2018

The NCC and RendezVous LeBreton reached an agreement in principle to develop LeBreton Flats.

April 20, 2018

Two months later, trouble begins when former Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson publicly asked whether Eugene Melnyk was serious about the project after the Senators owner had expressed concern.

November 23-24, 2018

The NCC revealed that RendezVous LeBreton partners Eugene Melnyk and John Ruddy, head of Trinity Developments, had been unable to reach an agreement on their business partnership. The NCC told them to get their act together by January 2019. The next day, Melnyk sued Ruddy for $700 million, accusing him of destroying their joint venture with plans for a major condominium development at 900 Albert St. and keeping him in the dark about expansion plans. Ruddy denied the claims.

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Melnyk’s lawsuit alleged that Watson’s office threatened to cut ties with the Senators owner if he announced during a municipal election campaign that he was pulling out of the LeBreton Flats project. The lawsuit alleged that Melnyk’s company wrote to Watson on Sept. 17, 2018, saying it wasn’t willing to proceed with the LeBreton Flats project until its concerns with Trinity Developments were addressed.

December 18-19, 2018

Ruddy filed a $1-billion countersuit claiming that Capital Sports Management Inc., Melnyk’s company,  was on shaky financial ground, among other things. Melnyk said Trinity could build the entire project and pocket the revenue as long as the Senators could run the arena, an idea batted down by Ruddy. On Dec. 19, the NCC announced it had scrapped the RendezVous LeBreton project.

September 14, 2019

Pimisi Station officially opened on Sept. 14, 2019, with a ceremony held at the Tunney’s Pasture terminal.

December 1, 2021

The NCC renewed its call for submissions to redevelop LeBreton Flats. In a bid document, the commission said a major events centre could be a concert hall or a sports arena. Applications were due by the end of February 2022, with the commission evaluating the submissions until April.

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June 23, 2022

The Ottawa Senators won a bid for a downtown arena on LeBreton Flats. A memorandum of understanding stated that land would be leased to Capital Sports Development Inc., a company led by the Senators. It was announced that the new arena would be built on a 7.5-acre parcel of land on Albert Street between Preston Street and City Centre, just west of the site of Adisoke, Ottawa’s new library.

November 4, 2022

Following the death of owner Eugene Melnyk, the Ottawa Senators NHL franchise was put up for sale.

June 13, 2023

It was announced that Toronto businessman Michael Andlauer would become owner of the Ottawa Senators.

Michael Andlauer is officially announced as new owner of the Ottawa Senators at a news conference with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

September 2023

The NHL Board of Governors approved the sale of the Ottawa Senators to Michael Andlauer.

The deadline to get an agreement for developing an arena project at LeBreton Flats was pushed forward a year, to Sept. 20, 2024, by NCC chief executive officer Tobi Nussbaum to give Andlauer time to study the project and negotiate a deal.

September 11, 2024

The Ottawa Citizen reported that Andlauer was confident a deal between the Ottawa Senators and the NCC would be made by the new deadline of Sept. 20, 2024. He admitted that “there’s been some roadblocks along the way.”

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Tobi Nussbaum, chief executive officer of the National Capital Commission, at Friday’s news conference with the Ottawa Senators to announce a deal for an arena project at LeBreton Flats. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

September 20, 2024

The Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission reached an agreement for a new arena at LeBreton Flats. The two sides hope to complete the sale of the land for the project in 2025, with the deal to also include plans for a district around the rink. Now the team has a lot to do, including geotechnical studies, transportation and mobility studies, zoning done, environmental studies and figuring out how to pay for the project.

With files from Postmedia and The Canadian Press.

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