By Wil Stos
Centretown businesses may be adversely affected if a proposed condominium development at the corner of Bank Street and Gilmour Street fails to materialize.
Property owner and developer Craig Callen Jones had planned to tear down a one-storey building on Bank Street in order to construct a new building and renovate the upper floors of an additional existing unit, says David Rimmer, a current tenant in one of the buildings on the site.
However, construction of the five-storey commercial and residential building has yet to begin.
“I’m a little anxious as to what might happen with this whole development,” says Rimmer, owner of After Stonewall, a bookstore serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community in Ottawa.
“I haven’t heard anything but rumours for the last few months, so I do begin to wonder what’s happening. Through my understanding, the original plan may have fallen through for financial reasons.”
According to Rimmer, everyone who made a down payment on one of the 40 condominium units or the sole penthouse suite received a letter in May stating the construction company couldn’t begin until it had rented a crane.
“But they said by July they should be under way, and we still haven’t received word,” he says.
Frank Saab, artistic director of US Hair Design, the other current tenant on the property, agrees that news about the development has not been forthcoming.
“We were told that come January, the construction would start and I haven’t heard much since,” he says.
Both Rimmer and Saab say they were excited about the possibility of the new concept for the space, and neither tenant has given up hope on the project. Still, rumour and speculation have taken their toll on the tenants’ confidence.
Rimmer says if any new plans call for him to temporarily move his operations out of its current space, he would probably close permanently.
Jones says he prefers not to comment on the Bank and Gilmour project at present.
“I’m still working to see what we can do with this project, but it’s a difficult one in terms of economics and the site constraints,” he says.
Rimmer says the rumours are enough to make him pause for thought.
“I really like him as a landlord and I like this location. It’s one of those things in business… you can never tell what might happen.”