Nearly a year after it was vacated, one of downtown Ottawa’s most iconic retail spaces has a new tenant.
The building at 99 Rideau St. that was home to a McDonald’s restaurant for nearly four decades has been leased to an eatery that will focus on Asian cuisine, real estate brokerage Colliers told OBJ on Monday.
Kevin Houlahan, a sales representative with Colliers, would not name the building’s new occupant. He described him as a chef with more than 15 years of experience who is “well-known in the Asian community for his exceptional culinary work in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.”
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The new business is a partnership between the restaurateur and a group from Toronto, Houlahan said, adding the new tenants signed a 10-year lease at the property on Friday.
“The focus will be on fine Chinese/Asian cuisine with a highlight on dim sum and specialty seafood dishes,” he said.
The property will be renovated to include a sit-down dining room with an entrance on Rideau Street as well as a takeout window. Houlahan said the owners hope to open the new restaurant this summer.
The move marks a new chapter for the 3,917-square-foot space, which McDonald’s occupied from 1985 until last May.
The fast-food outlet became notorious for drawing rowdy late-night crowds after last call at nearby bars and restaurants. A video of a person pulling a baby raccoon out of a sweater during a fight at the restaurant in 2013 went viral, and the franchise owner eventually shortened the location’s hours.
Houlahan said the arrival of the new restaurant will be another milestone in the ongoing revitalization of Rideau Street, which was hit hard by the pandemic.
Earlier this month, the National Capital Commission revealed it has acquired the former Chapters building at 47-57 Rideau St. NCC chief executive Tobi Nussbaum told reporters last week the Crown corporation is negotiating with a group that wants to convert the 60,000-square-foot space into an events centre.
“It’s nice to see redevelopment in the area,” Houlahan said. “It’s another positive (story) for Rideau Street.”
He said the former McDonald’s, which was put up for lease last spring, attracted “substantial interest” from a range of quick-service restaurants and other potential tenants who sense that things are looking up in downtown Ottawa.
“We’re overcoming those hurdles,” Houlahan said, pointing to measures aimed at making the neighbourhood safer such as the new police hub at the Rideau Centre that is slated to become operational later this spring.
