NRCan Booth Street Complex Redevelopment | Approved
 

Redevelopment process set to begin on former NRCan Booth Street property

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: June 15, 2016 | Last Updated: June 15, 2016 6:57 PM EDT

http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2016/06...the-canada-lan.jpeg?quality=55&strip=all

After years of planning that seemingly went nowhere, efforts to redevelop part of Natural Resources Canada‘s 10-hectare Booth Street complex should be under way within months.

Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation that manages, redevelops or sells surplus federal properties, acquired a 2.6-hectare chunk of the Booth Street campus from NRCan last October.

The property, bounded by Booth, Orangeville, Norman and Rochester streets, was part of the NRCan complex, where about 3,000 departmental personnel work.

However, the property was declared surplus to NRCan’s needs in 2011 and the seven buildings on the site, some dating back to the 1930s, were vacant at the time of the transfer.

Canada Landsspokeswoman Manon Lapensée said Wednesday the Crown corporation is completing its analysis of the site and will “shortly” begin a public consultation process, similar to the one it conducted after acquiring the former CFB Rockcliffe.

Canada Lands held 195 meetings with residents, community organizations and neighbouring institutions to help smooth the way for Rockcliffe airbase project. Last year, city council approved a 20-year development plan for the property, which will eventually be home to 10,000 people.

Though some have suggested the Booth Street property could become Ottawa’s version of Toronto’s popular Distillery District, Lapensée said Canada Lands has not developed a proposal yet. “We want to hear what people have to say, and their thoughts and aspirations for the site.”

Canada Lands will also work closely with the City of Ottawa, which must approve any eventual plan.

Several of the buildings on the property are registered federal heritage buildings, complicating any potential plan to demolish them. (Or maybe not — the Sir John Carling Building on the Experimental Farm, which carried the same heritage designation, was demolished in 2014.)

Lapensée said Canada Lands will develop a heritage strategy for the property in consultation with the city. According to its website, the heritage strategy “will commemorate and celebrate the history of the site, while seeking to reserve and reintegrate some buildings, facades and/or elements where possible.

“The company believes that any new buildings and landscaping should reinforce the heritage character and assist in the historical interpretation of the site.”

There are also indications that more sections of the Booth Street complex could be made available for redevelopment.

A tender notice published earlier this month, dealing with the rehousing of NRCan’s National Geological Reference Collection at the Canadian Museum of Nature, stated that the Booth Street facilities “have been identified as obsolete and will soon be declared surplus.”

When questioned about that by the Citizen, however, departmental spokeswoman Angela Kokkinos said in an email no decision has been taken to declare the Booth Street facilities surplus. NRCan then revised the tender notice to delete the “surplus” reference.

“No decision has yet been made to sell the buildings that the department currently occupies,” Kokkinos added.

Plans to redevelop the Booth Street complex date back more than a decade.

Documents obtained by the Citizen in 2005 showed the government was planning to sell five buildings in the complex for redevelopment, including two buildings — 601 and 615 Booth Street — outside the property acquired by Canada Lands.

A detailed plan prepared by NRCan and Canada Lands in 2008 proposed a new “headquarters showcase” tower, the demolition of 615 Booth, construction of low-rise residential buildings around a central court and two new residential highrises.

In 2011, the Citizen reported that much of the Booth Street complex was in terrible condition and could soon be abandoned. According to internal documents, both 601 and 615 Booth were in “critical condition and require replacement.”

As well, a 2012 audit of real property mentioned plans to dispose of nine buildings in the Booth Street complex.

Earlier this year, some residents floated the idea of locating The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic campus at the Booth Street site, though it is significantly smaller than the minimum 20 hectares the hospital says it requires.

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I've been asking around about this redevelopment for a while now. Glad they're finally taking some steps forward. Even though, the Canada Lands Company seems to generally do a good job with their developments I fear that they won't get this one right. We'll see. Either way Booth will be anchored at both ends by industrial/heritage redevelopments with this and Zibi.

Any idea what this means realistically in terms of when shovels will be in the ground?

They make the comparison with rockcliffe aribase. I gather this took 3-4 years of consultations post transfer just to settle on a development plan. Should we expect the same? Or is the fact that this is a smaller parcel of land speed things up?

Looking at that Google Map aerial view - it's so obvious that it would work so well as a "distillery district". The old brick buildings, the great location, that brick tower... Just convert the buildings to offices and hipster lofts, renovate some of those surface parking lots with cobblestone plazas and park-ettes, add a couple of glass condo towers around or attached to some of those existing lowrise brick buildings (turning the brick building as a podium), maybe a nice Loblaws, couple of shops, pubs, restaurants and maybe actual distilleries this could be a great area.

Especially with more towers and people moving to the Little Italy area, this could be a great addition to the neighborhood.

But alas, probably nothing for another 5-10 years. And when it does happen, it'll be half-assed :(

Depends how long the consultations with the Algonquins is going to drag it out.

Grocery store, affordable housing among ideas for Booth Street

By: Adam Kveton, Metro
Published on Thu Jan 26 2017

http://www.metronews.ca/content/dam/thes...redevelopment.jpg.size.xxlarge.promo.jpg
This aerial photo shows the Booth Street site which the Canada Lands Company plans to redevelop.
The buildings in blue are designated heritage buildings by the federal government. The company held
its first public meeting on the redevelopment Tuesday.

Residents had their first chance Tuesday to put forward ideas for the redevelopment of a former government metallurgy lab site near Dow’s Lake.

The Canada Lands Company, an arms-length crown corporation that redevelops unneeded federal government land, held their first public consultation on Tuesday for the site, located on the west side of Booth Street between Norman and Orangeville streets.

The company’s purpose is to redevelop and re-integrate land into its surrounding neighbourhood while generating enough money to fund itself, said Jean Lachance, senior director of real estate in Ottawa for the company.

Some attendees of the public meeting expressed interest in seeing a grocery store at the site, affordable housing, open space, and the preservation of some of the federally-designated heritage buildings on the site, said Lachance.

Five of the seven buildings on the site were given heritage designation, however the future of those buildings is in the hands of the city and its own heritage designation process.

The buildings, part of a physical metallurgy lab, were a result of the need for new sources of energy, strategic minerals and gold during the Second World War, says the Canadian Register of historic places.

Next up for the redevelopment effort is the creation of an advisory working group made up of members from the community, said Lachance. The plan is to have two more public meetings before making a submission to the city in the late fall or early 2018.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2017...-on-former-booth-street-ottawa-lab-.html

Canada Lands Company has a link to the slide-deck used at the consultation, as well as a survey on their site. While the first few questions on the survey target those in attendance at the workshop, the last question is open for feedback.

Booth Street Overview (CLC Website): http://en.clc.ca/property/522

Here too:

http://www.rueboothstreet.ca

My Dad was one of the chief metallurgists there after the war until '52. The family (way before I was born) lived on Elm St. near Preston, and Dad walked to work. When I asked him about the place years ago he said if the rolling mill was still there he was the one that oversaw its installation, among other things. Funnily enough, one of my best pals had both a father and grandfather as metallurgists, and both worked in that same building, though his grandfather was before my dad and his dad was after.

I look forward to seeing how this area develops...

Email update on the Booth Street project:

:previous: Wasn't able to attend the consultation last night, and haven't been able to locate any information about it, apart from this photo (via Twitter):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBMUaXHXcAAk1ju.jpg:medium

Did anyone attend? Were there other boards available?

Here are the boards from last night. One of the boards, that I didn't take a picture of, made mention of a grocery store. One of the presenters also mentioned that people are divided on whether or not they should keep the smoke stack. A lot of people want it kept, including me, but there are other people saying the smoke stack has to go. All options have the smoke stack in tact.

Option 1 keeps the least amount of heritage buildings. Option 2 keeps the most heritage buildings. Option is a mix of the two. There is also a difference in where the green space is located. Personally, I think there's too much.


Option 1
http://i.imgur.com/rxnskUA.jpg

Option 2
http://i.imgur.com/TTL5eNu.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AFvc05u.jpg

Option 3
http://i.imgur.com/4SemmJo.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/W9eWk0c.jpg

Why do public bodies in this city have such a problem making these consultation materials available proactively?

This is trivial, but it has bothered me since post #10 that the smokestack was not part of the heritage side of the project. I see from the concept panels that the stack is still there, which is a very good thing, imo.

Same here! When I filled out the survey, I suggested a few times that they keep it.

@kevinbottawa, thanks for posting those photos!

No problem!

They had a board showing the interiors of the heritage buildings but I didn't even think to take a picture of it. I'm really impressed with how the insides of these buildings look. I thought they'd be more institutional but they're actually industrial looking.

Seems like they have released the PDFs now:

Presentation

Information Boards

Preliminary Concepts

My version of Doors Open Ottawa
 

You have no idea how nice it would be to have street names on all streets, painted in 12' high characters.



https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4243/35040158146_a0fce140f7_k.jpg

nrcan doors open ottawa D827495 by Chuck Clark, on Flickr