Ontario Construction News staff writer
A former Department of National Defence (DND) building in downtown Ottawa is being demolished to make way for a new residential high-rise. The 14-storey structure at 110 O’Connor St., at the corner of Slater Street, is being taken down floor by floor. It will be replaced by a new tower planned to feature between 350 and 400 rental apartments.
Montreal-based Groupe Mach purchased the vacant office building from Cominar REIT for $40 million in 2021 and is now one of Ottawa’s largest office landlords. The company’s president, Vincent Chiara, told the Ottawa Business Journal in 2013 that after analyzing the costs, it was more financially viable to demolish the building, which dates from the early 1970s, and build from scratch rather than convert the existing structure.
“A lot of those existing buildings don’t convert easily, and the costs of conversion are usually higher than building from scratch,” Chiara said in the published interview.
DemolitionPlus, based in Cornwall, is handling the demolition through a gradual tear-down process. The company started by gutting the interior structure, and is moving on to the second phase, which is handled floor-by-floor.
The new development is part of a broader trend of converting outdated office spaces in Ottawa’s core to address a tightening rental housing market. Several other developers, including CLV Group, District Realty, and Gatineau-based Katasa, have also completed office-to-residential conversions in recent years.
Local business leaders have expressed support for the project, seeing it as a positive step for the city’s downtown.
“We’re taking a site that’s been dead downtown for a very long time,” said Kevin McHale, executive director of the Sparks Street BIA and Mall Authority, in a CTV broadcast. “Hopefully, in a few years we have it full of 400-500 people living in the downtown, visiting our businesses and making downtown Ottawa more vibrant.”
Sueling Ching, president and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade, echoed this sentiment in an emailed statement to CTV. “Transforming former office buildings into housing, including affordable housing and mixed-use developments, supports a more vibrant, 24/7 downtown economy.”
“Housing revitalization in the core contributes to economic resilience, public safety, and business recovery, especially for small and local enterprises who have been negatively impacted by the downtown core’s adoption of hybrid work.”
Despite a general downturn in the office sector, Groupe Mach remains confident in the Ottawa market. The company also acquired the One60 Elgin office tower for $277 million in partnership with Sarees Investments. Chiara noted that the average lease term for tenants at One60 Elgin is about eight years, which he believes is enough time for the market to recover.
“We’re starting to see signs of people coming back to the office,” Chiara told the Ottawa Business Journal in the 2023 interview. “We definitely think that if and when (the office sector) comes back, One60 Elgin is definitely going to be at the top of your list if you’re setting up shop in downtown Ottawa because it is one of the premier properties as far as location and quality goes.”