Cutting Through The Lansdowne Hype: STANKOVIC

Published 07/22/2025 · Updated 07/21/2025

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One document this year would be eligible to win the award as the most over-the-top hyperbole … were there such an Ottawa prize.

That would be the June 13, 2025 open letter prepared by the leaders of Ottawa Unlimited to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and councill backing Lansdowne 2.0.

What’s Ottawa Unlimited? It was created in December 2024 as a “revolutionary collaboration” between the Ottawa Board of Trade, Invest Ottawa and Ottawa Tourism. The presidents and CEOs of the three organizations are the leaders of Ottawa Unlimited. According to them, Ottawa Unlimited represents a “new radical collaboration for economic growth and global competitiveness” for the city.

If you believe the arguments presented in the open letter, a failure of Ottawa City Council to approve Lansdowne 2.0 will seriously jeopardize our global reputation as a “world class innovation” city not to mention severely diminish the efforts to revitalize Ottawa’s downtown. The following quotes illustrate the letter’s hyperbole.

“Lansdowne 2.0 is a strategic investment in Ottawa’s future, foundational to the success of key economic development initiatives such as downtown transformation, entrepreneurial opportunities and world class innovation.”
“Ottawa can remain competitive by leveraging tools like public private partnerships to attract the investment and talent needed to drive growth and deliver economic and social returns.”
“Now is the time to act…Delayed action will result in opportunity costs and increase reputational risk. Conversely, a clear and decisive path forward will ignite confidence in our economy and in Ottawa as a contemporary city of opportunity. Today’s global economy demands bold decisions”.
“This is a defining moment for our community and the future of the national capital region. Together, we can build a legacy of leadership and prosperity for the world to see. It’s our time.”

Here’s why Ottawa Unlimited’s open letter represents the extreme limit of exaggerated local boosterism.

The reality is that most people outside of Ottawa and the different sports leagues involved, never mind the global community, likely don’t care if Lansdowne 2.0 gets council approval or not.

Remember, this whole Lansdowne redevelopment initiative started about 17 years ago when Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group wanted to bring back CFL football to Lansdowne Park. Without the CFL awarding a football franchise to OSEG, there would not be a Lansdowne 1.0 or 2.0.

The complex financial arrangement between the city and OSEG and the progression of development proposals were driven by the desire to bring back professional football and by the need to reduce the cost burden to the city for replacing the underfunded Frank Clair Stadium and Civic Centre. This eventually led to the commercialization and privatization of a large part of Lansdowne Park.

We are now in 2025 and the future of Lansdowne Park continues to be debated by city council. So much for a “clear and decisive path forward” and the importance of making “bold decisions.”

Even if any delayed action with investing in Lansdowne 2.0 was to result in opportunity costs and increased reputational risk, these negative fallouts would still pale compared to the disaster known as the LRT and to the public transit woes in terms of both the quality of service and budget deficits. An efficient, effective and well-managed public transit network would go much, much further to enhancing Ottawa’s quality of life and global economic competitiveness than Lansdowne 2.0.

Meanwhile, the OSEG proposal to city council was unsolicited which then was followed by a sole-sourced procurement process. As a result, community input into the proposed redevelopment during the initial phase was precluded. Political decisions around land use and financial contributions were generally not dealt with in an open, transparent and participatory way leading to divisiveness and mis-trust between the community and elected officials and OSEG. Such attributes are not normally thought of when describing successful public-private partnerships.

If Lansdowne 2.0 is supposed to be “foundational” to the renewal of Ottawa’s downtown, one wonders then why the mention of Lansdowne 2.0 (or 1.0) in the Ottawa Board of Trade’s Downtown Ottawa Action Agenda released in May 2024 is only found in the appendix inside a long list of city reports. More importantly, the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park has also been viewed by some as being a competitor to the revitalization of the downtown and in particular the ByWard Market because the City has focused its investment on Lansdowne. Lansdowne’s Farmers Market has also attracted vendors from the ByWard Market.

Lansdowne 2.0’s capacity to support “new entrepreneurial opportunities and world class innovation” is debatable if taken from the perspective of Invest Ottawa which focusses on technology start-up companies and technology ecosystems often associated with the Kanata North Business Park and Bayview Yards.

The area in Lansdowne Park known as The Shops at Lansdowne might have had the potential to be the home of Ottawa-based small, independent businesses like those commonly found along traditional main streets. Instead, The Shops at Lansdowne are dominated by national and international chain stores and restaurants. The Farmers Market still offers limited potential for Ottawa-based small business operations including in arts and crafts.

Placemaking is not something that can be outsourced to a private sector group with an interest in commercializing public space. Placemaking needs to be driven by city-wide needs to ensure community ownership in any (re)development of public lands. Lansdowne 2.0 (and 1.0) fails in this regard. Lansdowne Park’s position as a “grand public meeting place” and a historical jewel that existed since the city purchased the agricultural fairgrounds in 1883 as a permanent park is no longer and never will be realized again.

Dan Stankovic is an Ottawa consultant and former municipal public servant in economic development and housing.