The latest vision for Lansdowne Park, presented Friday, includes two residential towers instead of three, and no more green roof atop the relocated arena. City council will vote on the plan next month.
In November, city staff estimated the total cost of the Lansdowne Park redevelopment project at $419 million. In a new report, the Office of the Auditor General pegged the true cost at $493.4 million, an increase of nearly 18 per cent. Ottawa's auditor general says construction costs for the Lansdowne 2.0 project could be understated by more than $74 million, potentially raising the project's price tag to just short of half a billion dollars.
The OAG found that the November estimate relied on solid expertise and due diligence, but was still off base. Its report hiked the projected cost of the project by 17.7 per cent to $493.4 million. "The OAG believes that there was insufficient consideration of risk commensurate to this project when establishing their contingency amount," it said.
A separate cost estimate of $18.6 million to build a city parking garage at Lansdowne is also too low, according to the report, given that parking structure costs have jumped more than 12 per cent in one year.The city was aiming to fund the $419-million cost from its November estimate through a combination of $310 million in debt and several other revenue sources, including by selling the rights to build two towers over the stands.
"Should proforma projections associated with the partnership fall short, distributions from the waterfall will not be available to the City to support debt servicing," it said.The report notes that revenue growth for the Ottawa Redblacks has already fallen short. It found that more conservative growth rates could cut into profits over the life of the partnership by tens of millions of dollars.
"It is the OAG's perspective's that the Guide was not followed for the determination of the utilities allowance and the determination of overall contingency."
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