Non-Residential

The head of the city’s largest property management firm says the federal government needs to be “much more transparent” about what it plans to do with its downtown office footprint so landlords can start preparing now for future vacancies.

A new report suggests Ottawa’s industrial market “may have reached a peak” after a pandemic-fuelled e-commerce boom triggered unprecedented demand for warehouse space, but it says rents are still expected to rise amid an ongoing supply shortage.

The Altea wellness and social club that is moving into the former Canadian Tire store on Carling Avenue could be the first of many businesses opting for a location near but not in the downtown core, market watchers say.

True North Commercial REIT said in financial filings this week it has agreed to sell the 11-storey Narono Building at 360 Laurier Ave. W. to an unnamed buyer for about $17.5 million.

In an email to OBJ on Monday, Group Germain’s vice-president of operations, Hugo Germain, said the Quebec-based hotel chain is still working with the Ottawa International Airport Authority on a proposal to build a 180-room Alt Hotel that would be attached to the airport terminal.

Altea Active, which signed its lease with RioCan REIT last week, will take possession of the old Canadian Tire retail store on Carling Avenue in August.

Several prominent local real estate experts say they expect vacancies to keep rising as businesses rethink their space requirements.

More than half a million square feet of industrial space is in the works at two sites in west Kanata as developers scramble to satisfy demand for warehousing and light-manufacturing facilities in the city’s tightest submarket.

Speculation about alternate locations heated up last week when Mayor Mark Sutcliffe suggested the prime parcel of development land just west of downtown “is not the only option” for a new rink.

The Ottawa company in charge of developing and leasing a four-building industrial park near Amazon’s warehouse in Barrhaven says it expects a flood of calls from potential e-commerce and logistics tenants eager to capitalize on the city’s close proximity to major markets.