By Holly Nelson
Construction workers will soon be breaking up the asphalt on a new downtown office tower that will eventually house about 1,400 federal workers.
It’s not uncommon for a building to be 100 per cent leased prior to breaking ground on the site because developers are often reluctant to build without having an anchor tenant.
So when Public Works and Government Services issued a call in February for properties that could accommodate 28,000 square metres of usable office space in the downtown core, GWL Realty Advisors Inc. jumped at the chance to submit a proposal.
GWL Realty Advisors Inc., a subsidiary of Great-West Life Assurance Company, won the contract and Public Works and Government Services will manage its office space.
Ottawa experiences one of the lowest commercial office vacancy rates in the country.
But with limited land space available to build in the downtown core and with today’s weaker market, developers want to secure a major portion of the lease space up front, says Robert Kavanagh, the director of asset management for GWL Realty Advisors Inc.
“Growth in the private sector is very shallow throughout the city,” says Regis Trudel, senior vice-president of Minto Development Inc. “The only significant absorption of office space has been by the federal government.”
The project attracted proposals from six major local developers .
“GWL won the contract because they were the lowest cost proposal providing the best value to the Crown,” says Dennis Caughey, senior leasing advisor at Public Works and Government Services.
Public Works and Government Services is the federal department responsible for providing all the office space, either leased or owned, to all the government’s departments.
“The space will be used as replacement space for when leases end on existing sites,” says Lucie Coté, senior communications advisor at the department “It will also be used to meet emerging needs of government departments.”
Once completed, the site at 269 Laurier Avenue West will include an 18-storey, 32,000 square metre building, surface parking and landscaping. An existing parking garage on the lot, formerly run by the City of Ottawa, will remain and be run by GWL Realty Advisors Inc.
Coté says the project will cost the Crown approximately $180 per rentable square metre per year, meaning its total yearly value will be close to $585,000. Public Works has committed to a 15-year lease.
She says the department estimates that 1,400 employees will work in this office space.
While Coté does say they have potential tenants in mind, they have not yetdecided which government departments will move in.
In the next few weeks, GWL will be busy completing necessary paperwork so that they will be able to break ground on the project by the end of the month.
“We are in the process of finalizing our site plan and building permit applications with the City of Ottawa,” says Kavanagh.
The official groundbreaking will take place at the end of April.
The building should be ready for occupancy by summer of 2005.