A parcel of land in LeBreton Flats sold to the Ottawa Senators for construction of their new arena. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NCC

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It has been a calendar year since the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission entered into an agreement for the National Hockey League franchise to purchase 11 acres at LeBreton Flats to build a new home for the club.

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Though the news cycle has been quiet since the Senators and the NCC announced the deal on Aug. 11, 2025, a lot is happening behind the scenes to make the dream of a more accessible arena for the people of Ottawa and Gatineau a reality.

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Rome wasn’t built in a day and this project was never going to be finalized overnight. Still, the Senators and the NCC remain confident the purchase will be completed in the coming months, allowing work on the site to begin in earnest.

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Speaking to the Ottawa Citizen in a telephone interview last Thursday to provide an update on LeBreton and mark the first anniversary of the announcement of the deal between the Senators and the NCC, Cyril Leeder, president of the Ottawa Senators said the project continues to move forward.

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The Citizen has reported that Senators owner Michael Andlauer and his partners have agreed to pay $37 million for the 11 acres.

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Leeder confirmed the Senators do have the option to buy four more acres, but they haven’t determined whether that will be the case yet.

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“We’re making good progress,” Leeder said. “We’ve taken some steps forward and what we’re trying to do here is we’ve got a vision to build the next great gathering place at LeBreton Flats, and there’s a lot of planning, a lot of effort that has to go into that, and we’re happy where we are right now.

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“Obviously, we’d like to move things along. The fans would like to move things along as quickly as possible. But we’re making progress and there’s a lot of work going on right now. There are meetings two, three or four a week taking place with various stakeholders, and we’re feeling like we’ve made progress.”

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Leeder doesn’t have a firm time frame yet.

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There is a lot of heavy lifting taking place and Leeder predicted there will be at least another five months of work on planning, which includes decontaminating the site, working with Indigenous groups, designing the site and financing.

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All these need to be dealt with before the Senators can confirm a timeline for putting shovels in the ground. The Senators are also in regular discussions with the City of Ottawa because this is an urban development that will require planning for roadways and infrastructure.

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Andlauer has a lot of development expertise in his partnership group — including Bill, Shawn and Neil Malhotra of Claridge Homes. Paul and Michael Paletta of Alinea Holdings, real estate developers from the Burlington area, who are also partners.

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“I get that every day,” Leeder said of the timeframe question. “We don’t want to speculate on that because, as I said, there’s still a lot of planning. We will have a better idea, I believe, in the new year. That’s what we’re focused on: getting to a real timetable in the new year, and we know once construction starts, it’s going to take at least a year just for the site work to get done.

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“There’s a remediation plan and relocation of services has to take place, and those are necessary steps before we can even get on with the site with our contractor to begin building, whether it’s the event centre and a hotel and some shops; that remediation and the service relocation has to get done first. Then, the event centre itself is 30 to 36 months of construction. We’re a bit away from having a firm schedule and when we get there, we’re probably three to four years from being finished.”

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If you remember the movie Slapshot, coach Reggie Dunlop, played by Paul Newman, is in a bar when a patron tells him: “You gotta get the power play working. You’re losing.”

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“Yeah, we’re working on it,” says Dunlop, player/head coach of the Charlestown Chiefs.

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Leeder must feel that way when it comes to discussing the arena timeframe.

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Cyril Leeder, seen in a 2023 file photo. Photo by Julie Oliver /POSTMEDIA

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The Senators and the NCC knew heading into this that the land would have to be remediated.

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Leeder told the Citizen that 514,000 cubic metres of soil need to be removed and most of it iss contaminated. To understand the size and scope of the work, it’s estimated that a common-sized dump truck would require 34,000 loads to remove all that soil.

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“The work is extensive,” Leeder said.

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Can the Senators remediate and begin the work on the below-ground parking garage at the same time?

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“It’s such a big site, so the answer to that is yes. Could you start Day 1 doing both? No,” Leeder said. “But if you envisioned that your remediation excavator starts on the west end of the site and he works his way east. Well, by the time he gets halfway, then you can get back in and start working on your parking garage. So maybe some of those timelines we can shorten, and that’s part of the work that has to take place over the next six to eight months.

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“As I said, we’d have a better idea of a timeline in the new year. Those are the things we’re working on. We’re trying to figure out how much parking we need. We’ve got a good idea what you’d need for an event centre, but how many residential buildings and how much do they need? And, you’ve pretty well got to do all that as they did at Lansdowne in one shot.

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“You do all your parking and then the above-grade stuff can take place over an orderly schedule, but the first work has to be to get everything in the ground and all the parking. So the parking really drives how big and how much other development will take place on the site. We’re sorting through that now.”

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The Senators have held several meetings with Indigenous groups to secure a financial agreement, which is paramount to this project.

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The Senators and the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation confirmed in March that they are on track to establish a framework for an economic partnership for a new rink on land located 10 minutes west of Parliament Hill.

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“We’ve really been focused on our collaboration the last six months with the Algonquin Nation,” Leeder said. “They’re going to be an important partner. If you remember back in March, we announced we were negotiating with them, and those discussions have moved along very well. We’re in a good spot. We’re meeting with them regularly, at least once a week, sometimes twice, and we’re discussing what a long-term partnership might look like with them that would provide economic benefits to the Algonquin Nation.”

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The Senators are working with an architect on what the rink and the area around it will look like. Leeder confirmed there will be a hotel and restaurants/bars in public spaces, along with residential housing.

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The club has visited several of the new rinks in North America to get an idea of what the design of the events centre should include. He said the two best models to follow are the UBS Arena, which is the home of the New York Islanders in Belmont, plus the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

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“There will be a little bit of everything in this venue,” Leeder said. “It will be uniquely Ottawa-Gatineau with the experience. We want it to say Ottawa-Gatineau on the inside and on the outside. We’ve toured a lot of different buildings; we’ve gotten a lot of advice, and there are some things from different buildings we’d like to incorporate.”

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The new home of the Red Wings is spectacular.

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“We really liked Detroit. It was a downtown environment, really fit in well. It was easy to get around. Fans loved it. Wide concourses. Players loved it. The player campus was efficient. It was really efficient as well for other events. They’re able to host events. And this is important when you’re competing with other cities to attract events,” Leeder said.

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“They’re very efficient. So their costs weren’t high because they’ve well designed the back of the house in the arena for operations. The parking was well done at both of those buildings, and we’ll have an urban parking element that we’ve got to figure out.”

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Detroit’s practice rink is located in the facility and that is something Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, would like the Senators to have in the new building.

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“That’s one of the real core things in Little Caesars that the hockey ops folks really loved. Is that you know you come out of your dressing room, you go right into the main arena on a game day, and you go out the same door and go left to the practice rink on a practice day, so it doesn’t get much better than that. And if we can make that fit on the site, we will,” Leeder said.

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The Senators hope to show some design plans early in 2027.

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Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe were joined by city councillors, team staff, supporters and fans on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, to raise the Senators flag in front of Ottawa City Hall, which faces Elgin Street — temporarily renamed Sens Mile for the playoff run. Photo by ASHLEY FRASER /POSTMEDIA

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The billion-dollar question is: How will this all be paid for? That’s something that the Senators are working on with their partners. The arena in Calgary that will open in 2027-28 is priced at $1.2 billion.

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The new arena in Calgary is being built in a partnership that includes the city and the province of Alberta. The cost is north of $1.2 billion, which is being funded by 27% by the province, along with $537 million from the city and another $356 million from the owners of the Flames.

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The Senators have stated publicly that they will not be asking City of Ottawa taxpayers for money. In the past, Leeder has cited the structure used to negotiate a Public Private Partnership (P3S) for the Bell Sensplex and the Richcraft Sensplex.

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“We’re working on that now. The overall project and the site have to get fully defined before we solidify financing. We’re not quite there, so we haven’t had really any discussions on financing, other than we know what details we need to have to go out and solicit financing, and we’re not quite final on that part of the process yet,” Leeder said.

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Andlauer has stated publicly that he “doesn’t have to own the arena.”

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The club has held talks with the officials from the federal and provincial governments to “keep them updated” on the project. Both have programs that the build may qualify for contributions.

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As the one-year mark passes on Monday, on the surface it’s difficult to see progress. We get that. But listening to Leeder, there is a lot of work taking place that will require patience to get to the final result. He has been doing this since 2014, with a short break in between.

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“There’s lots of progress being made,” Leeder said. “We’re not unhappy where we are, and as I said, I think you’re going to see more progress. in the next three or four months, and then hopefully in the new year we’ll have some major progress and announcements.”

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Based solely on what Leeder spelled out, the Senators will be at the Canadian Tire Centre for at least four more seasons, and possibly five. That’s if everything goes as planned. Patience will have to continue to be a virtue, but it feels like this project is headed in the right direction.

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