Construction of proposed double residential towers on Metcalfe Street could begin next year if approved by the City of Ottawa.
Instead of browsing the portraits of Canada's greatest, residents could be checking for the greatest sales.
A grocery store may now take the place of a site formerly proposed for the Portrait Gallery of Canada underneath two planned downtown condominium towers.
Claridge Homes – a major home developer based in Ottawa – wants to add 42,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store, to the 27-storey twin-tower buildings slated for construction at 187 Metcalfe St.
The city had originally slated the ground floor of the proposed condominiums for the ill-fated portrait gallery.
Coun. Peter Hume, chairman of the planning and environment committee overseeing the project, says he is disappointed Claridge’s new plans for the ground floor don’t keep with the original “signature” concept.
“If it’s going to be a grocery store, that’s fine. That’s a positive addition to the east end of Centretown. But it could have been so much more,” Hume says.
“I would have been excited if it had been the new Ottawa gallery, or the new home of the concert hall. Something that was in keeping with the principles we advanced in giving them the zoning.”
City councillors re-zoned the site last year to allow 20- and 24-floor double residential buildings with the presumption that the ground floor would house the future site of the portrait gallery.
But when the federal government scrapped plans for the gallery, Claridge appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board and was permitted to build two 27-floor buildings, despite the change of usage.
Claridge’s latest amendment for retail space was submitted to the city late last month.
A letter from Claridge’s consultant says Centretown will benefit from the additions because the area only has one other major grocery store: Hartman’s Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street.
Claridge also proposes to build a daycare in the building. The letter points out Centretown only has nine others.
“Both uses constitute day-to-day necessities which are compatible with the largely residential Centretown area to the south as well as the principally employment-oriented central area to the north,” the letter stated.
Neil Malhotra, vice-president of Claridge Homes, says the company tried to identify services that would be useful to the community.
“We’re trying to contribute to the fabric of the neighbourhood,” Malhotra says.
He adds the proposed stores and daycare centre, while perhaps not as signature as some councillors would like, will encourage more people to live downtown.
“There’s a push to bring people downtown and to do that you have to have these services,” Malhotra says. He would not reveal which grocery store chain is being considered for the site.
Derek Crain, president of the Somerset Village BIA, says Centretown could certainly use another grocery store, but thinks a more commercial strip such as Elgin Street would be a better location.
“To pile commercial use helter skelter, away from Bank or Elgin, might be a move in the wrong direction,” Crain says. “Services should be kept to more commercial streets.”
Elgin Street housed Centretown fixture Goldstein’s Freshmart until 2007, when the store closed its doors after the owner retired. Now the street is only served by Boushey’s Fruit Market, a small store five blocks from the condo site and across the street from the former Goldstein’s.
Manager Mark Boushey says he would welcome the addition of a new grocery store.
“There was a bit of a void left when Goldstein’s closed,” Boushey says.
He explained that his own business has been around for 60 years and has survived the coming and goings of other grocery stores because Boushey’s has a dedicated clientele.
The application to city hall moves forward in the new year. If approved, construction on the condos will begin shortly after.