Performance Court (150 Elgin) | 90.5m | 21 fl | Completed

[DowntownDensity]

If one checks out their construction cam it appears the first of the green roofing has been placed on the left-hand side of the screen. Let's hold off judgment until more of it is placed, at this point looks like it could either turn out really nicely or really poorly.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa Tourism moving to the 14th floor along with unnamed Embassy.

City making space for Ottawa Tourism at 150 Elgin

Published on September 3, 2013
OBJ Staff

The organization responsible for driving tourists to the capital is set to become a tenant at one of the premier new office buildings in Ottawa’s downtown.

Councillors on the City of Ottawa’s finance and economic development committee voted Tuesday to allow Ottawa Tourism to move into the building at 150 Elgin St.

The body would be taking over space the building’s owner, Morguard, set aside for the municipality when it purchased the property from the city in 2004.

The agreement between the city and Morguard initially called for 7,604 square feet of “public benefit space” to be set aside for a concert hall for the Ottawa Chamber Music Society.

In 2011 the two sides agreed that the building would be constructed without the concert hall. Morguard, however, would still have to provide a similar amount of space that provided some kind of benefit to the city.

City staff recommended that space instead be used as offices for Ottawa Tourism.

“Such an arrangement would allow Ottawa Tourism to have the benefit of this new Class ‘A’ office space and location without any significant increase to its current operational budget,” the report reads.

A city staff report on the subject said Ottawa Tourism, which currently has its offices in the Varette Building at 130 Albert St., would be an ideal candidate for taking over 6,500 square feet of space on the building’s 14th floor.

That’s because the high-quality building – it will have views of the Rideau Canal and access to a rooftop garden – would better allow the organization to pursue its mandate of bringing tourists to the capital.

The staff recommendation is conditional on the City of Ottawa managing to negotiate a 10-year lease deal at market rates.

Staff believe the lease rate should be reduced by Morguard’s tenant allowance to Ottawa Tourism of $1.3 million to account for the “public benefit space” the city was supposed to receive when it sold the property in 2004.

The staff report on the subject also contains some new details about the tenants who are set to move into the building.

An embassy is set to move in on the 14th floor alongside Ottawa Tourism, the report reads.

It also said that the city wanted to move Ottawa Tourism into the building’s seventh floor, but that Morguard was “pursuing a major tenant that would occupy all the space on floors 6 to 13” so this wasn’t possible.

The Canada Council for the Arts and KPMG are the only tenants Morguard has confirmed so far. However, CIBC was also listed in documents filed with the city.

Morguard said it plans to have the building fully leased by 2014.

[rocketphish]

Elgin Street concert hall should become tourism office, finance committee agrees

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 3, 2013


OTTAWA — The last vestige of plans for an Elgin Street concert hall vanished Tuesday, with a city council committee vote to hand space reserved for it in a new Morguard office tower to Ottawa Tourism.

The real estate is the “community benefit” the city was promised as a substitute if the concert-hall dream fell apart, which it did. Instead, the city is accepting reduced rent on 6,500 square feet of office space on the 14th floor of the new building at 150 Elgin St., where it’ll put up the nominally independent tourism agency. Ottawa Tourism gets $550,000 a year from the city government, so the space, worth an estimated $1.3 million over 10 years, is a noticeable additional contribution.

The idea is that the views of downtown, the Rideau Canal and the Ottawa Convention Centre will make people who visit the tourism office — tour operators and planners of major events, for instance — think extra nicely about bringing people to the city.

Ottawa Tourism’s chief executive Noel Buckley told the council finance committee the group understands the 10-year deal, which will see Ottawa Tourism continue to pay the lesser rent it has for its smaller offices on Albert Street now, is finite. The agency won’t be back asking for a continued subsidy once it’s up, he promised.

The finance committee’s vote was unanimous. City council’s final say comes Sept. 11.

[email protected]

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Elgi...become+tourism+office/8864341/story.html

[Rob64]

Green roof.

[J.OT13]

Same as Minto Place's latest tower. I'll reserve judgement for when it is completed.

[bobcage]

Originally Posted by Rob64

Green roof.

the green roof is not too bad

[Urbanarchit]

Taken from the NAC, Performance Court and it's broken windows contributes to making Elgin Street an eclectic boulevard full of different architectural styles. It has never been my favourite street, but with these buildings it definitely has the best view of the CBD's skyline (as another poster mentioned).

Something I don't like about Performance Court is that white block right behind the spire. My guess is it's a mechanical roof or emergency staircase? In any case, it's really bad and inconsistent. Not sure what they were thinking.


Elgin Street Skyline by Shel DeFi on Flickr

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by defishel

Something I don't like about Performance Court is that white block right behind the spire. My guess is it's a mechanical roof or emergency staircase? In any case, it's really bad and inconsistent. Not sure what they were thinking.

These new buildings look great. From that angle in that light, even 150's glass looks good.

That blank white wall/tower holds an elevator to get from the buildings atrium the roof top terrace that will be open to the general public. There was also suppose to be a living wall inside the atrium roughly where that blank wall is.

In 10-15 years, something should be built in the churches parking lot, thus hiding the blank wall.

[Urbanarchit]

Performance Court by Shel DeF on Flickr


Skyscrapers by Shel DeF on Flickr


Skyscrapers by Shel DeF on Flickr

[J.OT13]

Looks bad from the west. Looks like a Sim City glitch where two buildings are super imposed or something.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Looks bad from the west. Looks like a Sim City glitch where two buildings are super imposed or something.

The square back section doesn't match with the rest of the building. It should have been rounded a bit to work.

[J.OT13]

The break where the square tower starts doesn't help either. This thing looks fine from Elgin, but any angle from the west is repulsive.

[trhgr]

I just spotted this building in the background of a TV interview shot in Tampa,FL. It really reminds me of 150 Elgin (or its taller cousin).

The resemblance is more striking on the emporis website (copyrighted image, here's the link: http://www.emporis.com/building/100-north-tampa-tampa-fl-usa

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by trhgr

I just spotted this building in the background of a TV interview shot in Tampa,FL. It really reminds me of 150 Elgin (or its taller cousin).

The resemblance is more striking on the emporis website (copyrighted image, here's the link: http://www.emporis.com/building/100-north-tampa-tampa-fl-usa

Uncanny. Is this sort of plagiarism allowed in architecture?

[MountainView]

I wish ours was that tall. Or at least 10m taller than Place Bell. I still like the building though!

[harls]

Is the green roof supposed to be a nod to the Parliament Hill and Chateau Laurier (Lord Elgin and the church too)? Because those are made of copper and actually turn green over time. They aren't weathered to begin with.

[kevinbottawa]

This is huge for Morguard. While it's sad to see a significant tech company leave the market, it's nice to see a tech company setting up shop in the CBD. With the federal government pulling out and the vacancy rate rising, it would be nice to see other tech companies follow suit.

Shopify moving offices to Morguard's Performance Court building

Mark Brownlee
Published on December 12, 2013

Morguard has signed up Ottawa-based Shopify to take over space in the soon-to-be-opened Performance Court building at 150 Elgin St., according to an industry source.

The e-commerce provider will be moving from its current ByWard Market location to the new building sometime after it is opened in the first part of 2014, said a source who spoke only on condition that they not be named.

Shopify will be taking over about 100,000 square feet of space, said another source.

Janet Park, Shopify’s public relations manager, said the company is planning to move its Ottawa offices but declined to confirm where the new location would be.

How exactly Morguard is going to fill the space at 150 Elgin St. has so far remained a mystery. The landlord has been willing to confirm a few tenants – such as the Canada Council for the Arts, KPMG and Ottawa Tourism – but the plans for the rest of the building have remained up in the air.

About 45 per cent of the roughly 350,000 square feet of space inside the building has yet to be leased, according to a recent market report from brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa.

It is not immediately clear how much space Shopify plans to use at the new building.

Shopify has been growing rapidly over the past years, a trend that company officials believe will continue in the near future. It currently has about 320 employees but they expect to grow that to 500 before the end of the year.

On Thursday the company announced it received $100 million to hire more staff and increase its offiline offerings.

–With files from Jacob Serebrin.

http://www.obj.ca/Real-Estate/Non-reside...o-Morguards-Performance-Court-building/1

[harls]

^ there was a story about Shopify this morning on Live 88.5, it sounded like they are getting a cash injection. Good news for them!

I really wish I thought of that idea.

[YOWflier]

Morguard has indeed landed a good one. This Shopify firm is no joke and should be watched closely.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...its-1-billion-milestone/article15892998/

A rare startup success story: Shopify hits $1-billion milestone

Shopify Inc. has become Canada’s first Internet startup since the dot-com crash to reach a billion-dollar valuation, thanks to one of the largest venture financings in Canadian history.

...

This puts them in quite an exclusive club, which includes Facebook and Twitter.

A hugely positive story for Ottawa's tech sector.

[teej1984]

Im somewhat surprised Shopify would leave the market (but more their current building) to move into a corporate tower... They seem like a progressive company that embraces innovation and forward-thinking, something I expect their current space offers them. I wonder if moving into a corporate office tower will change their corporate culture or stymie any kind of outside-the-box thinking. I find surroundings definitely dictate how one feels and acts at work!