General Update/Rumour thread [Urban Ottawa]

[theoldv]

There's plenty of them in town, I see them very often.

They set up shop out of the Brookstreet and do test drives every couple of months.

I'd care a lot less about a showroom and more about a service centre anyways.

[JHikka]

TESLA has been doing the occasional testing service at Brookstreet in Kanata for the past year or so. Their reservations fill up pretty quick.

[Harley613]

Two people on my street own Model S's, I see them every day!

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Long time coming.

City seeking theme park, "House of Sport" to boost economy

OBJ StaffPublished on November 25, 2015

The city is hoping to land a theme park or other large-scale tourist attraction and is eyeing a home for major sports organizations as part of its economic development strategy, a new report says.

...

http://www.obj.ca/Local/City-Hall/2015-1...ark%2C-House-of-Sport-to-boost-economy/1

This story and the one below (see emboldened text near the bottom) must be related. Speculation?

Mission accomplished in China, says Watson

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson calls his latest trip to Asia a success, even if it’s taking some time to get over the jetlag.

“Still having a hard time getting up in the morning, but work to do so you gotta keep plugging away, set the alarm clock,” he said Thursday.

The mayor began the trip with a visit to Beijing from Nov. 16-19 to promote Ottawa as a business partner before heading to Thailand for the One Young World Conference from Nov. 20-22. Ottawa hosts the event next year.

Mr. Watson said there is always a cost associated with leading business and tourism delegations, adding the money is well worth it.

“In the global world, if you stay at home, you’re falling further and further behind in terms of the global economy,” he said. “Quite frankly, when I came back, it was Bangkok to Tokyo to Calgary to Toronto to Ottawa all in one day. I would be quite happy to stay at home and never get on an airplane again for the rest of my life.”

The mayor said spending 12- and 13-hour days in windowless meeting rooms and convention halls is not his idea of a “boondoggle or a junket,” and is all part of his role as “salesman-in-chief for the city.”

Protocol is very important when doing business with the Chinese, Mr. Watson said, and having the mayor on the trip helped Ottawa’s business delegates gain access to “more senior decision-makers.”

Mr. Watson said the delegates would be a better gauge of how successful the trip was, and the feedback they gave him was positive.

“They were all very enthusiastic and positive about the level of meetings and the number of meetings they were getting and the contacts they were making and the deals and potential deals that would come out of this trip,” he said.

It is now time for those business delegates to follow up on the contacts they made in China and turn potential deals into concrete results. For at least one of them, the Graphite Software Corporation, the trip is already paying off.

The virtual phone solution provider was involved in two of the five deals signed during the trip. It signed a $5-million investment deal with the Zhongguancun Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (ZVCA) that will help Graphite double its Ottawa workforce. It also signed a global partner agreement with Beijing NationSky Network Technology and announced it is opening an office in China.

The ZVCA also signed a co-operation agreement with Invest Ottawa to help accelerate domestic and international deals.

In addition, the Ottawa agency inked two agreements with the Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG) that will see that organization’s incubator remain at the Invest Ottawa office for the next two years.

The incubator is already at full capacity, Mr. Watson said, adding ZDG wants to expand it when Invest Ottawa moves to its new home in the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards next fall.

“The question we have is whether we’re going to have enough room. We’ll certainly accommodate their current needs,” Mr. Watson said.

The incubator gives small Ottawa companies access to the Chinese market they wouldn’t otherwise have. Mr. Watson calls it “a feather in the cap” for the city that ZDG chose Ottawa for one of its three North American incubators. The other two are in Minneapolis and Silicon Valley.

Mr. Watson says Ottawa companies are strong innovators but struggle to commercialize their products, while Chinese companies have the opposite problem. He says the sister city agreement the cities have had since 1999 has been extremely beneficial to both communities.

“It’s a perfect marriage between our two countries and our two cities,” he said.

While the trip was mostly focused on high-tech industries, there was some tourism talk as well, but Mr. Watson said he couldn’t say more yet about negotiations with a significant investor to bring a major attraction to Ottawa.

He did invite Beijing’s mayor to come for 2017 festivities, an invitation that was accepted.

“That’s significant,” he said. “We’ve never had the mayor of Beijing come to our capital before and with that, he will bring Chinese media and other investors and it’s a pretty big coup to get the mayor. Having him come over here sends another signal to their industry that this is a serious relationship.”

http://www.obj.ca/Local/2015-11-27/article-4357828/Mission-accomplished-in-China%2C-says-Watson/1

[Radster]

There is also an Uber driver with a Tesla in Ottawa, if you get lucky

[DEWLine]

Good to know re: Tesla. Not a driver of cars, but anything that makes life easier for my lungs...

[jimmyjones]

Originally Posted by theoldv

I'd care a lot less about a showroom and more about a service centre anyways.

This. Montreal is far enough way that I'd be wary of making the eventual Model 3 my daily driver.

[TheGoods]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

I saw someone driving a Tesla (Model S, I think) here in town yesterday. I was a bit surprised because I didn't think they had a showroom here in town. So, I checked.

The short answer is that they don't ... yet. This is what Tesla's web site shows:

I have seen a few in my area, driving down the Airport Parkway or Hunt Club for a couple of years now.

The showroom looks to be located in the World Exchange Plaza, hmmm, not aware of any empty locations in the building facing the street.

[YOWflier]

Some significant renos underway at Place Bell. Here's a lousy cellcam shot of the posted renderings:

[OTSkyline]

I kinda like Place Bell but hate it at the same time... I like standing in front of it on Elgin St as it looks very tall and imposing in front of you and I like the large sidewalk and staircase leading underground (every time I see it I imagine an entrance to a subway station ) But I also don't like how "chunky" it is and how it looks from afar.

I like the idea of them renovating it and hopefully making the ground floor more inviting and all but I'm scared this might become another hack job, like the half-reno they did on that concrete building on Slater. That one looks like they started renovating it but went bankrupt and had to stop mid-way

[silvergate]

The parking lot in front of Carleton's University Centre has been completely torn up, looks like they are going to build a new Health Science Building on the south end of the space
http://carleton.ca/fmp/campus-master-plan/academic-health-science-building/

[OttawaSteve]

Originally Posted by TheGoods

The showroom looks to be located in the World Exchange Plaza, hmmm, not aware of any empty locations in the building facing the street.

I believe that's just the arbitrary city centre where Google Maps drops a pin when you search for "Ottawa." For example, try searching for Ottawa stores on the LCBO website and the World Exchange location is shown as being 0.0 km away.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

That map is showing the World Exchange Plaza. Odd location.

I wonder if they're taking the old Theatre as a show room.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by silvergate

The parking lot in front of Carleton's University Centre has been completely torn up, looks like they are going to build a new Health Science Building on the south end of the space
http://carleton.ca/fmp/campus-master-plan/academic-health-science-building/

It is the Health Sciences building. Concrete pouring started today, and things should move quickly as it is slab-on-ground.

[TheGoods]

Originally Posted by OttawaSteve

I believe that's just the arbitrary city centre where Google Maps drops a pin when you search for "Ottawa." For example, try searching for Ottawa stores on the LCBO website and the World Exchange location is shown as being 0.0 km away.

When i use Google maps and search for Ottawa, no pin is dropped but there is an LCBO in the World Exchange plaza, so when you do a search on the LCBO website, the one in the World Exchange is the most central location in Ottawa.

[kevinbottawa]

Here are some renderings of the Place Bell renovation from the hoarding. Looks very nice. Loving the retail spaces.


View of east entrance from north east


View of east entrance from south east


New food court

[kevinbottawa]

Crumbling heritage school may be replaced with four-storey apartment building

Joanne Laucius
Published on: December 6, 2015 | Last Updated: December 6, 2015 6:00 PM EST

The decades-long saga of a derelict Lowertown school may be coming to a close.

But some people in the neighbourhood aren’t happy with the proposed solution, even if city heritage planners argue that a new four-storey apartment building across from the old St. Brigid’s church will “re-animate this corner for the first time since the school was closed decades ago.”

A report to the city’ heritage subcommittee has recommended that the city approve a number of measures that have to be taken to allow for the construction of the new building at the corner of Murray Street and Cumberland Avenue.

The former Our Lady’s School, where Lowertown’s anglophone Catholic girls were educated, has been boarded up and scrawled with graffiti for years. The proposal would leave two walls of the 1904 school standing as a facade for the new building. Because the two-storey school had a high basement and high ceilings, the new four-storey building would appear to be only one storey higher than the original school.

“By incorporating the walls of the former school and developing a new residential use into the subject property, the corner of Cumberland and Murray Streets will make a positive contribution to the cultural landscape of this sector of the heritage conservation area, instead of featuring a vacant building with no function,” said the city report.

The derelict school has been a long-running problem for the city. Last year, the city won a legal battle with landlord Claude Lauzon, who owns the crumbling school. Lauzon was ordered to stabilize and protect the west and south walls, and foundations of the school under the direction of a structural engineer as well as securing the rest of the site and removing barricades to allow sidewalks to be open. He was also ordered to pay $140,000 in legal costs and expenses.



The proposal would clean up a corner that has been an eyesore for decades. But some say the plan will also leave a tear in the fabric of the heritage district.

David Jeanes, president of Heritage Ottawa, says the crumbling school has been “the poster child for demolition by neglect.”

But he is also concerned about another element of the proposal, which demands that a modest 1870s double worker’s cottage be demolished to make way for the project. The report says the planning department “regrets” the loss of the cottage. While the city isn’t happy with tearing down the cottage, it sees new building as a compromise, he said. Tearing down 281-283 Cumberland St. would extend the “developable” area of the street.

But the point of having a heritage district is to leave as much of the urban fabric as possible intact. And that includes the cottage, said Jeanes.

“It’s not in bad condition. It contributes to the nature of the neighbourhood. You need to look at the buildings as a group,” he said.

“You could progressively lose a lot of heritage if you don’t draw the line.”

Liz MacKenzie, co-chair of the heritage committee of the Lowertown Community Association, says the school looks better since the walls have been stabilized and the graffiti has been cleaned up. But she said its windows have been left open for years, contributing to the damage.

She is also opposed to demolishing the cottage. Research shows the building was inhabited in the latter part of the 19th century by three francophone widows who survived by running small businesses. The story is part of the district’s history, said MacKenzie. “It’s a testament to women entrepreneurs in Centretown.”

The city’s built heritage subcommittee is to vote on the proposal Thursday. If approved, it will move to planning committee in January.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...aced-with-four-storey-apartment-building

[Speedy Gonzales]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

Here are some renderings of the Place Bell renovation from the hoarding. Looks very nice. Loving the retail spaces.

Just don't look up

[rocketphish]

Eugene Haslam sells Ottawa's iconic Zaphod nightclub

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Thursday, December 10, 2015 11:17 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, December 10, 2015 05:44 PM EST

"So long, and thanks for all the fish."

In the end, it was only fitting that longtime impresario Eugene Haslam signed off on his life's latest chapter with a wisecrack from the author who inspired its inception.

The venerable music promoter -- who lifted the name of his Zaphod Beeblebrox bar and its motto as "the nightclub at the edge of the universe" from the pages of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy -- is stepping into retirement after finalizing the sale of the iconic Byward Market club.

But unlike the novel's hyper-intelligent dolphins, who bid farewell to their keepers and vacated Earth shortly before its destruction, Zaphod's will not be razed to make way for a hyperspace bypass (just read the book...)

"If I'm exiting, I want to do it in a way that I can still leave this legacy to the city," said Haslam from his home, where he staged a partial retreat from the limelight after suffering a stroke five years ago.

Haslam, 60, is keeping the club in the family, so to speak, passing the torch to a staffer (though he won't name the new owner, nor disclose the financial terms of the sale.)

"So many times you hear about these places, like the Ottawa Folklore Centre and Mello's closing up shop, and these places have a history," said Haslam. "It's a legacy."

Besides, Haslam acknowledges, "I'm not a young pup any more."

"For a time, I was seen as the face of live music in Ottawa, helping musicians and bands in town, or coming through town. But it's good to pass the torch of Zaphod's to someone who cares about it and is willing to step up," he said. "Staff have been running the place (in his absence) and they know how to run it ... For me, it's time to step away a bit."

When Haslam announced last year he was stepping back and looking for a buyer, there was an outpouring of gratitude from patrons and performers alike, matched only by the deluge of support he's seen since the sale was completed.

But this is far from the end of the road for Haslam, who equates his departure to a hit TV show going out in its prime.

"Sometimes things stick around a bit too long," said Haslam. "But you look at Seinfeld, that show went out at its zenith, but (Jerry) Seinfeld is still around. He's still doing his thing, just in a different way."

Haslam hopes he can continue to do his thing.

"Maybe I can use my skill set, but at a more cerebral level," he said, rhyming off a few of the national institutes, regulatory agencies and lobby groups that have their headquarters in the capital, like the Canada Council for the Arts or the CRTC.

"I'm a free agent now!"

His tenure as owner will officially end on Jan. 31, 2016, and in a statement posted Wednesday on his Facebook page, Haslam asked Ottawans to show new ownership the same "strong support (to) continue the legacy of our past 26+ years."

Haslam, who said he will take a break to "enjoy life" (as well as, presumably, the universe and everything...), signed off with one last nugget of wisdom from his favourite author.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

MUSICAL TIMELINE

1986-87 - Eugene Haslam opens The Underground, on the corner of Rideau and Friel St. "That's where the foundation of my journey was. It was a community of like-minded souls."

The club shuttered after a year, and Haslam returned to his old job as a banker.

1989 - "Months turned to years" in the bank, said Haslam, and so he returned to the club scene, opening the original Zaphod Beeblebrox in the same building on Rideau and Friel. The property was sold in 1991 and the old building razed to make way for the Bell Canada building currently occupying the site.

1992 - Back at the bank, Haslam was presented with an opportunity to lease the building at 27 York St. in March. He immediately thought, "Let's reopen Zaphod's." It has remained there ever since.

1996 - With a business partner, Haslam acquired and reopened the dormant Barrymore's. After a falling out, "I had the choice between something I had built and created, or something I was just taking care of." Haslam opened a rival club next door to Barrymore's, the short-lived Zaphod's 2. After that closed down, he returned to dedicate himself solely to the original club.

MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS

The musical highlights have been many, and Haslam admits a few too many Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters may have dulled his memory, but among his all-time highlights are Ben Harper, Alanis Morissette (for her launch of Jagged Little Pill), Yo La Tengo, Alejandro Escovedo, The Proclaimers, Ashley MacIsaac, Jeff Buckley, King Cobb Steelie and, of course, The Rolling Stones.

"They were in town doing the Lansdowne Park show, and I guess the idea came up to shoot a video (for Streets of Love)," Haslam recalled.

"They wanted to do it in a small place, you know, something funky to make it look like old times.

"We got the call (from a manager) and asked if they could do it."

It was a short conversation, Haslam recalled. "Yeah, okay. We can do that," he said.

Twitter: @OttSunHelmer
http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/12/10/eugene-haslam-sells-ottawas-iconic-zaphod-nightclub

[rocketphish]

The redevelopment of Shoppers City East is well underway, with a new building almost finished on the northwest corner of the property (corner of Ogilvie Rd. and Blair Place). It resembles the Shoppers Drug Mart building from the Trinity webpage. Of course, it could also be the SDM building from the old August 2013 pre-Costco plan as well.

Trinity's website:



From: http://www.trinity-group.com/property/shoppers-city-east


August 2013:



From: http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__9UZL39