Reboot set for NRCan lands
By Emma Davis
Plans to repurpose the old Natural Resource Canada Booth Street campus are under way, and area residents say they hope the redesign will beautify the block and boost business in the vicinity.
Planning for the project kicked off with a public meeting on Jan. 26, hosted by Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation that acquires and redevelops former government land.
The company will be deciding what to do with the 2.6-hectare block of properties along Booth Street, including seven vacant buildings and 325 parking spaces.
Close to 150 people came to the meeting to learn about Canada Lands and give suggestions for possible designs, including Anna Papadopoulos, a co-owner of the Nutty Greek Bake Shop located nearby on Rochester Street.
Papadopoulos opened her bakery five years ago and said the old government buildings in the area are crumbling and badly in need of repair.
“The buildings across from where I am are a bit of an eyesore right now because they’re abandoned,” she said. “It would be nice to see a rejuvenation of the area.”
Shrinking NRCan staff left the department with an oversupply of buildings, and these were transferred to Canada Lands in 2015.
For a while, the site was being considered as a possible site for the Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic campus, which delayed redevelopment plans, but by early next year the Crown corporation hopes to be submitting a final plan for approval to the city.
“Most people, I think, were happy to see that we had a blank slate, and that we were there to hear suggestions that they would have,” said Jean Lachance, senior director of Ottawa real estate for Canada Lands. “We didn’t have any preconceived notions as to what might be developed on the site.”
The heritage status of five buildings on the property may limit what can be done. Some buildings date back to the 1930s and were used by the federal government to support Canada’s growing mining industry during the first half of the 20th century.
A few were even designed by famous Ottawa architect Werner Ernst Noffke.
Leslie Maitland, the co-chair of Heritage Ottawa, said the buildings are a part of Canada’s history, and could be used in the redesign plans.
“These kind of industrial buildings are excellent for adaptive reuse like the bevies yards, like the distillery district in Toronto, because they tend to be large, solidly-built structures with big open spaces,” Maitland said.
However, Lachance said the heritage designation doesn’t mean the buildings will be kept.
“The designation may not have been the structures themselves, but the historical representation that they created as a campus,” he said.
Cody Starr, owner of The Rex restaurant on Adeline Street, said that regardless of what stays or goes, he hopes the design plans bring more people to Centretown West.
“I run a small restaurant. There’s so many people around at lunch time, but once all the government buildings empty out it’s pretty much a ghost town here at night . . . I’m all for more people,” he said.
Canada Lands will be holding a working group in April, and two more public meetings in the summer and fall to get input on tentative design plans. In the meantime, Canada Lands recommends people get in contact by responding to surveys or providing suggestions at the project website, rueboothstreet.ca.