All eyes will be on the National Capital Commission meeting Thursday morning.  It's expected an agreement will be announced to move forward with the redevelopment of Lebreton Flats.

As CTV news reported yesterday, there's an agreement in principle with the NCC to transfer the vacant land at Lebreton Flats to RendezVous Lebreton; the first step to moving the hockey team downtown.

Before that pucks drops in a new arena in downtown Ottawa, there's a lot of work to be done; the least of which is getting the financing in place for this $3-billion dollar deal.

It has been nearly two years since the NCC announced RendezVous Lebreton as the preferred bidder in the deal to transform 50 acres of vacant land just west of downtown. The public hasn't heard much since then about their Illumination project, but a whole lot of work has been underway to turn empty hectares of land into a world class space.

“From an Ottawa perspective, this is a game changer in every respect,” says Jim Durrell, the former mayor of Ottawa and the former president of the Ottawa Senators.

Durrell says much like Lansdowne Park was transformed, LeBreton Flats will be, too but on a much larger scale.

“It's going to, from a work perspective and a living perspective, it will change our downtown forever,” Durrell says, “I wish I was young enjoy to enjoy it when it's all going to happen.”

The concept calls for a public square, a multi-use sports facility called the Abilities Centre, a linear water channel and housing with the cherry on top: a new arena for the Ottawa Senators.

Brendan Bell is a former NHL player living in Ottawa, “Now it's a matter of Eugene Melnyk and John Ruddy getting their ducks in a row and getting financing in place over 6 or 12 months.”

The land at Lebreton Flats has sat vacant for 50 years, after all the buildings and homes were expropriated. Thirty years ago, the NCC and the city of Ottawa signed a deal to develop the land and yet, in 2018, there's still nothing there.

“It's about time they finally developed it right,” says a man walking by the site, “It’s been 30 or 40 years with just nothing down here right.”

“I think it's a great plan,” says another man, “It will help the Senators a lot if they brought the rink down here.”

This comes at an awkward time for the Senators. The team is playing poorly on the ice.  But the plan for the future is about success on a whole new level.