By Sarah Grant
The owner of a Bank Street grocery store will have to get permission from the City of Ottawa before he uses two heritage buildings to expand his business, city officials say.
Last year, Larry Hartman, owner of Hartman’s Your Independent Grocer, announced plans to turn the former Somerset Cinema and the adjacent McCord apartment building into an expanded grocery store.
Hartman already owned the 22-unit McCord building when he purchased the Somerset Cinema last year.
However, both the cinema and McCord buildings are protected under the provincial Heritage Act, says Sally Coutts, a heritage planner with the City of Ottawa.
“Any application to change or demolish such buildings is examined closely by the city,” she adds.
As stated in the provincial Heritage Act, the owner of a heritage building cannot make any changes to the building unless a formal application is submitted and permission is granted from the city.
Hartman has not yet submitted a formal application, and says he cannot discuss why he hasn’t.
He says the entire area of Centretown is protected under the Heritage Act. He also says the cinema and McCord buildings are not heritage buildings.
However, Coutts stresses that the cinema and McCord buildings are considered heritage buildings.
The Heritage Act protects all of Centretown because the area offers “a special sense of time and place,” she explains.
As well, because the cinema and McCord buildings are in an area that is protected by the Heritage Act, they have heritage status, she adds.
Coutts says they have rated the heritage value of all the buildings in Centretown, and they look at this rating when examining applications to change or demolish heritage buildings.
They are rated on a scale of one to 10, one meaning the building holds the most heritage value, and 10 meaning it holds the least heritage value.
The rating is based on the historical and architectural value of the building as well as the role it plays in maintaining the ambiance of the streetscape, Coutts says.
They have given the Somerset Cinema building a rating of two, and the McCord building a rating of four.
The higher the heritage value rating, the more the original character of the building will have to be preserved.
Hartman says he doesn’t know when expansion will begin. He originally estimated the expansion would be completed by the end of next year.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how things go,” he says.