Negotiations still have long way to go: Sens’ Anselmi

NCC seeks agreement in principle this year on LeBreton land transaction

Ottawa Senators president Tom Anselmi made a pitch to a business audience on Tuesday to help fill the Canadian Tire Centre this hockey season, while predicting the move to a planned downtown arena is still four to five years away.

The hockey club, through RendezVous LeBreton Group, continues to negotiate with the National Capital Commission to transform LeBreton Flats into a mixed-use community, including the NHL arena.

After his speech at Ottawa City Hall, Anselmi told reporters it’s still early in the negotiations and there’s no timeline for the completion (“the sooner we get on with it, the better,” he said).

NCC CEO Mark Kristmanson said the agency wants to have an agreement in principle on the land transaction by the end of the year.

“We think it’s doable if they’re willing to come to the table and they seem to be very willing to do so,” Kristmanson said.

He said the NCC has learned more about the level of soil contamination that will help complete a land transaction agreement, but wouldn’t go into detail about the ground conditions.

Kristmanson said he, along with NCC board chair Marc Seaman, met with Anselmi, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and Trinity Development Group executive chairman John Ruddy. The NCC bosses also met with Mayor Jim Watson.

It’s still unclear what the Senators will need from city hall and what the city will ask of the Senators before shovels break ground at LeBreton Flats. The city is expected to have its own list of negotiation principles this fall.

“We’re looking for support,” Anselmi said. “We don’t know what all the asks are yet. We’re still trying to figure out the size of the bread basket. This is a big, complicated project and we’re trying to figure out what it’s going to take to get it done.

“There’s a zillion things attached to this project.”

Those things include the contaminated soil at LeBreton Flats, Indigenous issues and the public realm. “There’s just a lot of things, we’re just on the verge of having those conversations again,” Anselmi said.

Anselmi joined the negotiations when he was named president of the Senators last January. By that time, RendezVous LeBreton Group had won a development competition and status as the preferred proponent for the project.

Last month, the Senators brought NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to city hall to meet with Watson to emphasize the gravity of the LeBreton Flats project.

“It was really for the city to just hear it from the horse’s mouth, how important this project could be for the team and what it could mean for our future,” Anselmi said.

Having an arena built by 2021, as first hoped, “is possible but it’s tight,” Anselmi said.

In addition to LeBreton Flats, Anselmi’s immediate focus has been putting more people in the seats at the Kanata arena this season, with a goal of selling 1,000 additional season tickets.

“We need to win on and off the ice,” Anselmi told the business crowd at city hall.

The club recently announced it’s removing 1,500 seats from the Canadian Tire Centre to better reflect the attendance for Senators games.

Anselmi said the Senators are reviewing the complete game experience, right down to the hotdogs and burgers sold at the concessions.

“We have to aspire to bigger and better,” Anselmi said.