The former home of the Rideau Street Chapters bookstore has been sold to the National Capital Commission.
The NCC confirmed Tuesday it has purchased the building at 47-57 Rideau St. but did not disclose the sale price.
In an email to OBJ on Tuesday, an NCC spokesperson called the building a “landmark property,” adding it was purchased “because it is considered part of the National Interest Land Mass (NILM) due to its prominent location along Confederation Boulevard, and its potential to bring new life to this area of the downtown core.”
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The Crown corporation said it is “actively engaged in confidential discussions with a proponent” and expects to provide further details “in the coming weeks.”
Chapters occupied the building from 1996 until 2022, when parent company Indigo Books & Music moved it to a smaller location across the street at the Rideau Centre.
According to CBRE, which brokered the deal, the building’s previous owner was a Quebec-based entity that’s connected to an “international” company. The two-storey structure, which includes about 42,000 square feet of space above ground and 19,000 square feet below grade, was put on the market last April.
While the site has been a major component of downtown Ottawa’s retail landscape for decades, one leading commercial broker told OBJ last year he thinks the property could find new life as part of a much larger mixed-use development.
Michael Church, the managing director of Avison Young’s Ottawa office, called the former Chapters space a “prime” site for a highrise multi-residential project.
“There’s got to be an opportunity there,” Church said in an interview last June. “I would have to think that the buyer of that is going to be a build-to-suit apartment or condo user in the future.”
Business leaders view the Rideau Street corridor as an important element of a broader campaign to revitalize the city’s core after downtown office towers hollowed out amid the shift to hybrid work during the pandemic.
Last week, a task force consisting of developers, real estate executives, BIA heads and other community leaders issued a report urging governments and the private sector to work together to find new uses for aging downtown buildings such as L’Esplanade Laurier, the Jackson Building and the current main branch of the Ottawa Public Library.
As the city looks to create more “15-minute neighbourhoods” where people can live within walking distance of transit and amenities such as shopping and restaurants, properties like the former Chapters building could be part of the solution.
Church said that while the site is well-suited to ground-floor retail, he believes the next owner of the property will see even more opportunities looking skyward.
“You’ll have that kind of a (retail) flavour to it, but I’ve got to think it’s residential above at some point,” he said.
