| Orleans to get $220-million town centre,
Deal gives area its long-awaited arts complex
September 27, 2006 Patrick Dare, The Ottawa Citizen Mayor Bob Chiarelli yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Richard Abboud, president of the Orleans Town Centre Partnership. As well, city managers released some details and drawings of what the project will look like. City council is to vote on the complex deal on Oct. 11 and legal agreements on various aspects of the project will follow. The city will get a $36.8-million Orleans Arts Centre -- about $10 million more expensive than had been expected -- built by a development consortium headed by Forum Leasehold Partners, the company that built Ottawa's new paramedic headquarters. The project will also involve construction of a series of commercial and residential buildings, and an 80-room hotel, to complete the Orleans town centre. It's to be built on 19 acres the city owns between Centrum Boulevard and the Queensway, near Place d'Orleans. The 86,000-square-foot arts centre -- a dream for 20 years -- will include a 500-seat performing arts hall, a 100-seat studio theatre, an art gallery, theatre studios, rehearsal studios and office space. The arts centre will cost the city $3.2 million a year to operate. About 50 arts groups in the Orleans area have been pushing for the centre. The city will hand over its Orleans client service centre building, the former Cumberland township hall, which is worth between $6 million and $8 million, as well as the 19 acres, which is valued at somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. The city will sign a long-term lease with the consortium to continue occupying the Orleans municipal building. The deal works in three steps:
If the total building project doesn't progress for some reason, the city can take back ownership of the land or reduce its financial contribution to the project. After years of complaining that the east end of Ottawa is missing out on the capital's economic growth, city council members said yesterday that business growth is finally coming to Orleans. And the Orleans town centre -- stalled for years in a sometimes weak east-end commercial real estate market -- is finally moving. Mr. Chiarelli said the project is the biggest in the history of the east end. He said business people in Orleans have been pushing for a hotel for at least the last 10 years. Orleans Councillor Bob Monette said the project will round out "the heart of Orleans," though he said some people may be disappointed at the small size of the hotel. "There's a lot of optimism attached to this. It's a great initiative," said Innes Councillor Rainer Bloess. He said the movement on the town centre project could help spark development across the Queensway on land owned by Minto Developments that is approved for office buildings. "One thing leads to another, that's what we're banking on," said Mr. Bloess. Minto President Roger Greenberg said yesterday that the company's 16-acre site, across from the Orleans town centre, is approved for several hundred thousand square feet of office space. The company is just waiting for the tenants to build for. City officials hope the federal government gives the area a huge boost by putting a branch of the government on the Minto property, easing the morning wave of commuters who drive or take the bus on congested roads to government offices downtown. Rob Mackay, the city's manager of strategic partnerships, said the town centre project should make Orleans a more walkable neighbourhood. He noted that, with the existing stores, professional offices and the YMCA gym in the area, as well as the new arts centre and apartment buildings to come, the place should be an attractive place to live, especially for seniors. © The Ottawa Citizen 2006 |
