Centretown’s last hope for a concert hall was extinguished when city council approved a motion that allows Ottawa Tourism to move into space in a new office building at 150 Elgin St.
The move would fulfill a requirement set out by the city during the building’s sale to Morguard Investments Ltd. in 2005. When Morguard purchased the building for $6.6 million, the city required them to devote a section of the building to space that would benefit the Ottawa community. Originally, a concert hall for the Ottawa Chamber Music Society was poised to fulfill this clause of the sale.
Council decided at a meeting on Sept. 11 that Ottawa Tourism provides a significant enough benefit to the community to fulfill this requirement. According to Ottawa Tourism president and CEO Noel Buckley, their community benefit lies in economics.
“We generate additional and incremental economic development activity in not only Centretown, but throughout the destination of Ottawa. Our community benefit comes from that activity,” says Buckley. “We understand that there are other organizations that provide an artistic or social type of community benefit.”
The main work of Ottawa Tourism involves sales and marketing campaigns nationally and internationally. The new office space would be used for the day-to-day operations of the organization. Hopes are that the organization could use this class “A” office space to lure more tourism business into the city.
With Ottawa Tourism going into the building at 150 Elgin St., the concert hall project has now been permanently displaced. Plans for the music venue at 150 Elgin St. fell through in 2011 after not enough money was raised privately for the project.
“Ottawa Tourism did not displace the concert hall,” says Glenn Hodgins, executive director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society, and chief advocate for the now-shelved cultural attraction. “The concert hall would be a tremendous boost for Centretown, no question. It is now looking for a new home and a new plan.”
However, Hodgins says that the Ottawa Chamber Music Society is fine with city council’s decision. “We’re partners with Ottawa Tourism, and very happy partners.”
Ottawa Tourism would lease 6,500 sq. ft. of space on the building’s 14th floor. The building is 21 storeys high, and features 360,000 sq. ft. total of office space.