Published on May 24, 2009
The negotiations between the City of Ottawa and the Lansdowne Live! group have begun to create a design and economic plan for Lansdowne Park. The design part will likely be more of a collaboration, with the developers asking the city for their requirements and trying to fit them into the park and budget. The negotiations will likely come over the budget and financial requirements of the developers. The developers will want some commercial space as public space doesn’t provide them a return on their investment; without it the city would be left with funding the whole project as pure public space. There is also a list of requirements the plan must follow, such as accommodation of the farmer’s market and city approval of all tenants, design and form of buildings.
Published on May 17, 2009
The Toronto media is a buzz with coverage of Jim Balsillie’s attempt to acquire the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to southern Ontario (Hamilton, at least temporarily). Though many media types do not believe Basillie will be successful, the drama is covered daily with new developments the topic of articles and radio shows. This post is not about the attention this hockey story is getting, though. I welcome more Canadian NHL teams. What this is about is the spin the Balsillie group is putting on funding of improvements to Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum.