Business leaders divided on feds’ plan to modernize Parliamentary Precinct

David Sali

March 15, 2024

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The federal government’s proposal to turn a two-and-a-half-acre site across from Parliament Hill into an office and retail complex is a “great start” toward revitalizing the Parliamentary Precinct, a prominent Ottawa real estate executive said Friday – but other business leaders say they’re not convinced the project will give struggling downtown merchants the boost they need. Michael Church, the managing director of Avison Young’s Ottawa office, said Public Services and Procurement Canada’s plan to restore and modernize nearly a dozen buildings on a block bounded by Wellington, Sparks, Metcalfe and O’Connor streets shows the feds are “committed” to bringing new life to an area that’s currently filled with decaying, half-empty buildings and vacant storefronts. “I applaud it,” Church said of the restoration project, which is expected to get underway later this year and is slated to take nearly a decade to complete. “The feds often take a bit of a (bad) rap, but they do take the long-term view of things … and I understand what they’re trying to do in creating a destination.” PSPC says the work will include “a combination of new build components, restoration and refit while preserving the heritage character of the historic streets.” The redesigned buildings will provide space for the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament and will also include renovated retail space on the Sparks Street Mall. Toronto’s Zeidler Architecture and U.K. firm David Chipperfield Architects will oversee the redesign process. Montreal-based Pomerleau will manage construction of the first phase, which is expected to begin this fall. Church, who is also part of the Ottawa Board of Trade’s push to craft a downtown action plan that is expected to be released next month, said projects like the one proposed by PSPC will work only if the whole community is involved in the process. “We need to be collaborative, and I think this is a great start,” he said. “We need some innovative thinking. We need support of not only the feds, but the province and quite frankly the business community.” Acknowledging the hot-button related issue of closing Wellington Street to vehicular traffic, Church suggested Ottawa could find inspiration in tourist meccas such as Florence, Italy, that restrict vehicles from entering certain parts of the city at specific times of day. “There’s all sorts of ways to get creative on that,” he added. “That’s part of that thinking that you have to have at getting all the stakeholders at the table. You can’t do this in isolation.”

Construction disruptions

However, Scott May, who owns Bar Robo at Queen St. Fare, just south of the redevelopment zone, said the feds’ modernization plan doesn’t offer anything that would entice visitors on Parliament Hill to hang around and check out nearby establishments like his. “I don’t know how much of an impact it’s going to have downtown, frankly,” said May, who was one of the driving forces behind last year’s campaign to brand the area south of Parliament Hill as a go-to entertainment destination called “SoPa.” Tourists “want to see the Parliament Buildings,” he noted. But May argues there is nothing else on nearby streets to capture their interest, and he said the new project won’t change that. “(Visitors) come down and look at (Parliament) and realize quickly there's not much else to do on Wellington,” he said. “Where do they go? They’re not hanging around downtown anymore, that’s for sure.” Sparks Street BIA executive director Kevin McHale has had several discussions with federal and municipal officials about the project. While he’s all in favour of sprucing up the Parliamentary Precinct, McHale wants to ensure that disruptions to merchants on his street are kept to a minimum as construction on the decade-long project ramps up. “We don’t want Sparks to just become a thoroughfare of dump trucks and garbage removal and equipment dropoff,” he said. “We’re trying to mitigate a lot of that.” Still, McHale said it’s going to require some nimble thinking to work around such a massive undertaking. For example, Sparks Street hosts a number of major events, including well-known attractions such as the Ottawa International Buskerfest and Ottawa Ribfest as well as parts of Winterlude. McHale said those events will likely have to be relocated or reconfigured to accommodate the ongoing construction. “It’s a lot bigger than, say, a normal building reconstruction project,” he noted. “We’ll have to adjust how we do programming on the street for the next decade.” Church said he believes the project will benefit downtown businesses in the long run. But he said planners have to “cut through” the “analysis paralysis” that often sets in on projects that involve multiple layers of government if it is ultimately to be a success. “We all live here, so let’s all figure it out together,” Church said. “We’ve got to take the long-term view of things. The capital is going to be around a lot longer than all of us, so let’s figure out a way to move it forward.”