Viking Rideau Corporation (developer and former owner of the Rideau Centre) has submitted an application to the City of Ottawa for Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Control of 70 Nicholas Street, in the Rideau-Vanier ward of Ottawa. The proposal seeks to add a 21-storey, mixed-use building incorporating the City Registry Office, a designated heritage building. The building would consist of 280 apartments, 230 square metres of at-grade retail space, 241 bicycle spaces, 102 underground parking spaces and a grand total of 7,118 metres of amenity space, 2,429 metres of which would be communal.
The subject site is bound by Nicholas Street, Daly Avenue, Colonel By Drive, and Mackenzie King Bridge, in the Sandy Hill/ByWard Market neighbourhoods. The site of the proposal has a total area of 2,986 square metres with approximately 107 metres of frontage along Nicholas Street and 38 metres of frontage along Daly Avenue.
The applicant is seeking to permit zero visitor parking spaces, though 27 are currently required, and to permit the relocation of the existing heritage building, whereas it is required for this building to remain in the same location. The City Registry Office was constructed in 1873-1874 but only occupied the building until they moved to another location on Elgin in 1909. The heritage building then became home to many tenants until the last left in 1980, leaving the building vacant since. If the proposal is accepted, the City Registry Office will be moved slightly north to be integrated into the base of the new development.
