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Task force to explore ways to 'revitalize' downtown Ottawa
Matthew Lapierre, Ottawa Citizen
Jul 29, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi on Friday unveiled a new task force focusing on revitalizing the city’s downtown core.
The Downtown Ottawa Revitalization Task Force will include affordable and social housing advocates, not-for-profit and for-profit housing developers, Indigenous leaders, sustainability proponents and local BIA and tourism representatives.
Speaking at the corner of Laurier Avenue and Bank Street amid office buildings that appeared void of workers, Naqvi said the pandemic had changed the downtown core.
“Office employees working from home to prevent the unnecessary spread of illness no longer walk our downtown streets,” he said. “Local businesses and shops who once relied on the foot traffic related to tens of thousands of people who used to walk these streets … are struggling to find customers. Hotels which were once overflowing with business travellers who needed to be in Ottawa for meetings are now sidelined as virtual meetings and conferences have become more normal.
“Downtown Ottawa has fundamentally changed and frankly, there is no going back to our pre-pandemic norms. Hybrid work is here to stay. It is our job to adapt to this new reality.”
The task force would begin meeting in August, Naqvi said, and over the three subsequent months would continue meeting to discuss and brainstorm ways to “create new innovative and creative solutions for downtown Ottawa’s short and long term revitalization.”
“We know, for example, that our community needs more housing, more affordable and social housing,” Naqvi said. “There is a real opportunity here to look at some of the unused office space and convert them for housing purposes.”
Graeme Hussey, president of the not-for-profit housing developer Cahdco, will serve as co-chair of the task force alongside Claridge Homes vice-president Neil Malhotra.
Hussey said Friday that it was possible to convert unused office space into housing, which, he noted was in dire need in Ottawa and especially downtown. “The largest challenge in a real estate development is about land ownership, not about the engineering science,” he said. “I think the challenge would more be about how to take something owned by the federal government and turn it into something that might be a market, hotel or a condominium or a non-profit housing project.”
The task force’s goals include finding ways to get people and tourists back to the downtown core, to “bring life back into the area,” said Naqvi. They will present their recommendations to various levels of government.
“There is going to be a new council and a new mayor,” said Naqvi. “There’s a great opportunity to be able to advocate those ideas with our new city council.”
There is an urgency to take advantage of the disruption caused by the pandemic, he added, to push for changes downtown.
“My concern as a member of parliament for Ottawa Centre is that without finding ways to bring people back to the downtown core we may descend into a state of disrepair very similar to what we saw in Detroit in the 1990s,” Naqvi said.
Other members of the task force include Centretown Community Association president Mary Huang, Azure Urban Developments founder John Thomas, Ottawa Board of Trade president and CEO Sueling Ching, Ottawa Tourism vice-president Catharine Callary, EVOQ Strategies director Christopher Rivet, Bank Street BIA executive director Christine Leadman and Sparks Street BIA executive director Kevin McHale.
Somerset ward Coun. Catherine McKenney and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury will sit as observers on the board, along with a representative from the Ottawa mayor’s office. Fleury is not seeking re-election in this fall’s vote and McKenny is running instead for the mayor’s office. Incumbent Jim Watson is not running for re-election as mayor.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...owntown-ottawa