The head of Minto Developments Inc. is one of the business people working to redevelop Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park and bring a professional football team back to the city in the process, said a city councillor.

Coun. Rainer Bloess said Wednesday he believes Minto's Roger Greenberg is one of the major players in talks with the City of Ottawa about the future of the central Ottawa park that contains the former home stadium of the disbanded Ottawa Renegades Canadian Football League team.

On Monday, Mayor Larry O'Brien told reporters that he has been in close talks with a group of "deep-pocketed Ottawa businesspeople" about bringing a CFL franchise back to the city, but would not reveal who they were.

Bloess said executives from two other major local development companies — John Ruddy, president and founder of Trinity Development Group, and William Shenkman, chairman of Shenkman Corp. — have also been named in relation to the plan.

He added that the three are among people who "see obviously great value in Lansdowne Park.

"They see that as part of the future of Lansdowne Park, that you would still have a stadium, you would have a football franchise, you would retain some of the things that the residents of the city of Ottawa want to see. At the same time you generate value from the land, from the location, to help pay for that."

Bloess said he believes one of the key components would be to provide a main tenant for the stadium.

On Wednesday morning, none of the key members of the group would comment on their involvement in such a plan.

Lansdowne Park's Frank Clair Stadium was where the Ottawa Renegades played their home games until the franchise was shut down in 2006.

City officials have talked about redeveloping the park several times over the years, most recently after some of the stadium's stands were shut down due to structural damage and deemed at risk of collapse this month.