Article content continued

Has this bomb not alienated Melnyk against the very forces that can make the deal happen?

Indeed, a cautious lawyer might counsel Mayor Jim Watson, Ruddy & Co. not to be in the same room as Melnyk, as long as legal matters are pending. On top of which, the Sens are skirmishing with the very newspaper you’re reading, as though everybody is the enemy.

Photo by Jean Levac / Postmedia News

The timing of the lawsuit, too, makes everyone look stupid. Thursday we had the NCC wringing its hands over “unresolved issues” in the partnership and the very next day news that the wheels had fallen off months ago, the bus was in the ditch and the house was burning down. And they all knew it, yet here was the NCC agreeing to a two-month delay, like we’d hit a speed bump, not driven off a cliff.

So, where to from here? Well, let’s start at the learning table.

The NCC spent four years on a process to have a single private consortium basically build a mini-city over a 10- to 20-year period, with an anchoring public use or two.

In hindsight, this was a mistake. The RendezVous LeBreton group was composed of several strong-willed business people who had never worked together to build a tool shed, let alone a $4-billion project of enormous complexity.

Photo by RendezVous Group

Build together? They couldn’t even plan together.

If we could have a redo — and basically, is this not where we’re at? — would it not make more sense to do the project in workable phases?

First, start with the public realm aspects of the project, which is the only thing people care about. Build the arena in a seamless link to the LRT, add the city’s new main library, then phase out any retail, restaurants, commercial buildings as the market allows. Use multiple developers, on an as-needed basis and let them earn the build with sharp designs.