Sparks Street

[phil235]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Speaking of Bello Uomo, there's a new high-end retailer about to open across the street from there, next to Nate's. Good luck to them. No, really!

I'm not very likely to ever be a customer of that shop, but still nice to see some unique stuff popping up along Sparks. That stretch with the Rabbit Hole, Riviera, the Kitchessippi tasting room, bike cafe etc. is quite interesting. I just wish that 240 Sparks would stop putting offices on the ground level and actually open up to the street, to keep the strip going west of Bank.

[rocketphish]

Historic former department store building on Sparks Street up for sale

David Sali, OBJ
November 21, 2024



A historic downtown building that was once home to one of Ottawa’s best-known department stores is on the market. The six-storey building at 118 Sparks St. is fully leased to Scotiabank, which purchased it in 1983 and sold it to a private ownership group a few years ago.

Ottawa broker Nick Pantieras, who is helping to market the property on behalf of the owners, said there has already been “a lot of interest” in the 65,000-square-foot building, which is more than a century old. He said he expects a private company or owner-operator to acquire the property, which occupies a prominent location a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill. “It’s a little small for institutional (owners), but the national covenant of Scotiabank could lead some smaller corporate buyers or institutional buyers to look at it as well,” Pantieras told OBJ on Thursday. “But chances are it’s going to be a private deal.” Originally opened in 1910, the building was owned by prominent Ottawa resident Frederick W. Carling and was reportedly one of the first structures in Eastern Ontario to use reinforced concrete.

For more than six decades, it was home to the Murphy-Gamble department store, a fixture in the capital’s retail scene. The Robert Simpson Co. acquired the building in 1972, rebranding it as a Simpsons department store which continued to operate until the chain’s new owners, the Hudson’s Bay Co., shut it down and sold the building to Scotiabank in January 1983. Scotiabank’s lease on three of the floors expires at the end of 2025, but the bank plans to continue occupying the remainder of the building.

Pantieras said that as efforts to revitalize Sparks Street pick up steam, a new owner might look at “all sorts of alternative uses” for the available space, from museums to art galleries or other forms of entertainment. “It doesn’t have to be office space,” he said, adding the property “will stand the test of time. It’s a cool building.” Pantieras, the senior managing director of real estate firm Institutional Property Advisors' Ottawa office, said he’s seeing a “general uptick in activity” across all sectors in commercial real estate as interest rates fall. “The (office market) is cautious, but there is still some demand,” he said. “The institutions and large (private investors), Ottawa is still very much on their radar.”

On the retail front, Institutional Property Advisors recently helped broker the pending sale of the Avalon Centre shopping plaza on Tenth Line Road in Orléans. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year. Pantieras said there were a “significant” number of bids on the 85,000-square-foot property, which is anchored by a Farm Boy food store. “There was a huge amount of activity on that,” Pantieras said. “We haven’t seen that in a couple of years. Necessity-based retail is still very much the strongest asset class right now.”

https://obj.ca/historic-sparks-stree...ding-for-sale/

[J.OT13]

Money on the NCC swooping in?

[lrt's friend]

Another underutilized building on Sparks Street. It was retail until the Rideau Centre sucked the life out of Sparks Street.

[Kitchissippi]

That building still housed the Simpsons department store when I came to Ottawa for university. You could walk in from Sparks, do your shopping, and walk out onto Queen. There were several buildings like that on the street and it added a porous nature to the mid-blocks. I hope whatever goes in there next will allow that to return.

I was really disappointed when they built the CBC building that they didn't create a publicly accessible mid-block link. They could have had an internal atrium where they engaged people instead of the blank face they have now.

Along with removing government control of the north side of the street, I think the porosity of the south side is important to revitalizing the street. By improving the links to Queen Street, a much larger shopping district is integrated to create a critical mass, and access to transit becomes more obvious and accessible.

[lrt's friend]

I recall cut throughs for pedestrians to walk from Sparks to Queen mid block. The recent story on the O'Connor public washrooms reminded me of this. The good news is the two that I recall from childhood still exist and are open during business hours. They are located in the Ottawa Hydro building and the Hardy Arcade. We did lose the other when Scotiabank replaced Simpson's/Murphy-Gambles.

[phil235]

I may be misremembering, but I thought CBC did have a pass through when it first opened? Agree that it does nothing for the street now.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by phil235

I may be misremembering, but I thought CBC did have a pass through when it first opened? Agree that it does nothing for the street now.

I remember they were supposed to put the newsroom on the ground floor and make it highly visible from Sparks. Some big missed opportunities with that project.

[Kitchissippi]

When they were building the World Exchange Plaza, there was supposed to be a department store in the podium — Printemps from France if I recall correctly. The floor plan was designed to be a large store made up of small boutiques, much like the HBC is now. There was supposed to be a bridge beside the Hardy Arcade that led directly onto Sparks, but when they built the HSBC building they didn't follow through with it. This could have been a game changer, as I think Sparks street needs more adjacent indoor spaces that provide respite from the weather, like the way there is now a symbiotic relationship between the Byward Market and the Rideau Centre.

I wish they would bring that idea of a direct connection to the WEP, and do the same on the next block by punching a passage through the CBC building with a bridge across to the Sun Life plaza atrium. In fact I think mid-block links could happen on every block: D'Arcy McGee to Manulife Plaza, 240 Sparks to whatever gets developed across Queen, and so on. While that sounds like Calgary's Plus 15 network, it's different in a sense that Sparks is at a higher elevation than Queen and getting across the bridges won't require too much of a perceived level change.

To add to that "pipe" dream, O'Connor Street could be excavated for an underground mall that connects the LRT to adjacent buildings including the Block 2 redevelopment, all the way to a discrete entrance tucked into the berm on the north side of Wellington by the West Block. Parliament Station connected to Parliament Hill, imagine that There's even a mystery mid-level button on the elevators at the LRT head house that hints at the possibility of this.

If we had a tri-level downtown with building atria functioning as vertical circulation spaces, it could be quite a lively CBD with a balance of indoor and outdoor spaces well connected to the LRT.

[J.OT13]

Lots of lost opportunities over the years, for sure. Some better connections to the O-Train would have been great too instead of the one entrance at Winners that is now closed (from what I hear).

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Lots of lost opportunities over the years, for sure. Some better connections to the O-Train would have been great too instead of the one entrance at Winners that is now closed (from what I hear).

Yeah, the Winners entrance has been closed for a year or more now, if I recall the timeline correctly.

We need to invent some lore about the mystery level in the Parliament elevator.

[lrt's friend]

Homeless people were loitering at the entrance to Winners . No wonder they closed that entrance.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Homeless people were loitering at the entrance to Winners . No wonder they closed that entrance.

I'm surprised I haven't seen a trend of homeless people loitering at stations in general. I see them outside stations (Blair and Rideau in particular), but not inside. Nothing like what we hear about in Edmonton.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm surprised I haven't seen a trend of homeless people loitering at stations in general. I see them outside stations (Blair and Rideau in particular), but not inside. Nothing like what we hear about in Edmonton.

We can thank fare gates for that. There's a lot of chatter in Calgary and Edmonton, which both currently use a POP system, about installing fare gates to try and mitigate the rampant drug use, violence, and general social disorder they're experiencing on their transit systems.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

We can thank fare gates for that. There's a lot of chatter in Calgary and Edmonton, which both currently use a POP system, about installing fare gates to try and mitigate the rampant drug use, violence, and general social disorder they're experiencing on their transit systems.

Certainly prevents issues on the train, but every station has a decent fare free zone. Unless the nearly invisible security is super efficient.

Unfortunately, fare zones don't seem to protect the washrooms.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I recall cut throughs for pedestrians to walk from Sparks to Queen mid block. The recent story on the O'Connor public washrooms reminded me of this. The good news is the two that I recall from childhood still exist and are open during business hours. They are located in the Ottawa Hydro building and the Hardy Arcade. We did lose the other when Scotiabank replaced Simpson's/Murphy-Gambles.

We gained one, too, with the RE project.

[rocketphish]

Paul Meek and Kichesippi Beer Co. take 'risk' on Sparks St. and open permanent location

Mia Jensen, OBJ
November 25, 2025

After two years of testing the market by operating pop-ups in a vacant Sparks Street storefront, the owner of Kichesippi Beer Co. is moving in permanently with a new drink-and-snack concept called The Commons.

“When you go to a restaurant and say, ‘We’re just gonna have drinks,’ and the server rolls their eyes — that’s my customer,” Paul Meek told OBJ. “It’s where you stop in for a quick beer and a sandwich after work.”

Over the past few years, Meek said he’s been looking for a way to bring his brewery into the downtown core, something customers have been asking for since its location moved to Bells Corners in 2019.

In 2023, he tested a pop-up store at 187 Sparks St., an 1,100-square-foot space in a building with historic detail. The pop-up allowed the brewery to capitalize on holiday spending, offering Kichesippi brews alongside beer and wine from other Ontario producers.

After that initial success, Meek decided to continue operating in the space, trying different versions of the pop-up. In the two years since, he said he’s been able to gauge local interest in a new model that he believes fills a gap in the neighbourhood.

“We did numerous pop-ups and talked to people, whether it’s tourists or people who work or live in the area,” he said. “By just bringing beer, we weren’t really addressing the needs of customers and decided to expand the overall vision for our location.”

The Commons, he said, will be a drinks-first venue offering Kichesippi products as well as beer and wine from other local and Ontario producers, along with a selection of local snacks. Part of the expanded vision includes a coffee program with roasts supplied by Happy Goat Coffee Co.

“The pop-ups really allowed us to engage with the customer and learn about the demographic and not just say that we know what’s best. It’s really been a great study, listening to our potential customers in terms of what they want.”

There will also be a grab-and-go bottle shop, an idea that also came from customers.

<more>

https://obj.ca/paul-meek-kichesippi-...nent-location/

[FutureWickedCity]

Seems to me that Sparks is already well served by several drinking establishments. But I wish them well.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by FutureWickedCity

Seems to me that Sparks is already well served by several drinking establishments. But I wish them well.

Could same the same about the Market and Elgin. If we're establishing a third downtown bar district, I'm not complaining. With the population growth in the core, I think it can support it.

[J.OT13]

Improvements coming to Sparks St., including public realm plan and expanded Metcalfe Plaza

Marissa Galko, OBJ
March 9, 2026

Seven years since the initial concept, work is underway on the Sparks Street public realm plan, the head of the BIA said on Monday.

Downtown BIA executive director Kevin McHale gave an update at the BIA’s annual general meeting on Monday, the first since the organization expanded its catchment area and re-branded in 2025.

After several years of carrying a surplus to pay for the project, McHale said work is starting on the public realm plan that the then-Sparks Street BIA proposed to the City of Ottawa in 2019 with the goal of revitalizing the Sparks Street pedestrian mall.

A request for proposal has been issued for a functional design plan with a contract set to be awarded this spring, McHale told OBJ on Monday.

“The first plan (in 2019) was kind of your first version of a plan. It was taking some of the concepts that we heard from people at consultations and from business members … Part of this process would be to look at that plan that we originally developed and say, ‘Okay, is this still good?’”

McHale added that the project doesn’t have a set timeline and will be executed in a “phased approach” to minimize disruption to businesses.

“There’s no definitive schedule for construction right now, but you have to take the first steps to get to that point. This project, it will take about a year to get a functional plan together and then, from there, they’ll issue tender for the project.

“The original plan was to not do all five blocks all at the same time on the pedestrian street. The intention was to time things out … We don’t want to have a building getting renovated and then, all of a sudden, the building opens up, merchants who have had to deal with that construction for five years and then we just go and rip it up again.”

The work is aligned with one of the four “big moves” identified in the Ottawa Board of Trade’s 2024 Downtown Ottawa Action Agenda, which aims to revitalize downtown Ottawa by 2034.

In the agenda, OBOT says it aims to “focus on catalytic anchors for downtown including investment in the Sparks Street and ByWard Market public realms …” with a $500-million investment fund “to kick-start action.”

==SNIP==

Art installation launching this summer

The stretch of Sparks Street between Kent and Lyon streets will be transformed this summer with murals reflecting the country’s 13 provinces and territories.

The project is a partnership between the City of Ottawa and Bloomberg Associates, which has partnered with the city and its BIAs in the past with projects such as Street Seats in Centretown and an upcoming project on York Street in the ByWard Market.

“Bloomberg has been here at no charge to the City of Ottawa, providing guidance and support for projects and ideas that they’ve had,” McHale said at the meeting. “What we’re looking to do is take Sparks Street’s block five and put 13 murals that will represent the 13 provinces and territories.”

The selection process for an artist is ongoing, with work projected to take place in May and June so the murals can debut on Canada Day. “The intention is for the murals to be there as long as possible,” McHale added.

https://obj.ca/improvements-coming-s...etcalfe-plaza/