With chatter continuing about what might happen with the former Hudson’s Bay location on Rideau Street, one concept that has gained traction is the possibility that the 330,000-square-foot space could be turned into a hotel.
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With chatter continuing about what might happen with the former Hudson’s Bay location on Rideau Street, one concept that has gained traction is the possibility that the 330,000-square-foot space could be turned into a hotel.
Local architect Andrew Reeves, founder and principal partner at Linebox Studios, said the five-storey building is well-situated for that purpose and would support tourism in the area.
“With the (ByWard) Market and especially with Live Nation, the entertainment centre down there, having a hotel would reinforce the area as a destination, both for people in Ottawa and tourists,” he told OBJ. “I think it would be a positive step in the right direction for what the Market can and should be.”
Having been involved in a number of office-to-residential conversions, Reeves said converting the former Bay store into a hotel would look a bit different.
“I see that whole block probably not so much as a pure conversion, where you keep everything. My guess would be that they would go more for the approach of keeping the exterior facade, like they did at the Rideau Centre at the very corner where they kept the facades and then they built brand new behind it.”
Local architect Toon Dreessen, president of Architects DCA, sees challenges with the hotel approach, which would require rooms to be much larger than average.
“You need windows and access to outdoor light and air, so that tends to drive fairly small footprints of buildings,” he said. “And the flip side to that is that you end up with much larger units if you have a very deep floorplate and this building has quite a deep floorplate.”
According to Dreessen, cities such as Montreal have been successful in converting heritage buildings into boutique hotels, though rooms go for higher-than-average rates.
“The advantage of a hotel is that, when it comes to things like parking, you can get away with less,” he said. “The disadvantage, I think, is that you’re not going to rent out hotel rooms that are 1,500 square feet. To maximize profitability, it’s going to be much smaller units, still fighting for the same limited number of windows. You end up with a part of the building that doesn’t have windows, making it much harder to use.”
Retail analyst Bruce Winder told OBJ that, while the idea of a hotel at the Rideau Street location is unusual, the location has potential.
“I’ve never heard of that before,” he said. “Having said that, it’s not necessarily a bad concept, particularly if the Bay is a heritage building with a story to it in a downtown setting where there’s tourism. It’s a great area, close to the Parliament buildings, close to the art gallery, close to the Rideau Canal. Whether you’re coming for business or for a weekend in Ottawa, I think it might be a nice idea if that took place.”
In April, OBJ reported that the Rideau Street property was being acquired by a numbered company in an agreement signed by Claridge Homes chief financial officer Neil Malhotra, according to court documents. A company identified as 2808771 Ontario Ltd. agreed to purchase the former department store at 73, 85 and 87 Rideau St. in a deal that was signed March 19, documents filed in Ontario Superior Court showed.
Claridge is one of Ottawa’s most prominent housing developers, with a list of high-profile projects to its name that includes the city’s tallest building: the 469-foot Icon condo tower at the corner of Carling Avenue and Preston Street. The firm has mostly steered clear of converting office and retail buildings to residential complexes, although market watchers have also suggested that the former Bay space could be redeveloped as a mixed-use property with retailers on the ground floor and residential units above.
Overall, Winder said it hasn’t been easy finding ways to reuse the massive empty buildings left behind by the closure of the Bay stores.
“I would say it’s been a struggle for landlords to fill these spaces, because they really are legacy spaces,” said Winder. “They were built at a time when you had a lot of different department stores that could absorb this kind of footprint, and obviously those days are gone. Having said that, some landlords are doing what they can.”
In Markham, one former Bay location is expected to become a T&T Supermarket, while several other locations across the country are being turned into entertainment complexes. Still others are being divided to accommodate two or three retailers, rather than one large one.
Winder said landlords have had to get creative with similar large spaces. For example, a former Sears location at West Edmonton Mall was turned into a car dealership.
“It’s been a struggle to find people who can absorb that footprint,” he said. “You really need to find something that’s either in entertainment or something unconventional like a hotel or a car dealership.”
Instead of a hotel, Dreessen sees potential in turning the Rideau Street building into affordable housing with a mix of market-ready rentals for people of various incomes.
“There’s a lot of hotels already and what we really need in Ottawa is housing and not just luxury housing,” he said. “I think there is an appetite for and an interest in creating better social infrastructure that doesn’t have a profit-driven motive behind it. (Within the Bay building), you can create larger units that become more affordable for families to rent for a diverse market that you wouldn’t see in a regular profit-driven market.”
