Wheels in motion on L’Esplanade Laurier reno

Four-year job expected to start in fall 2017

The federal government is gearing up for a four-year renovation of the aging L’Esplanade Laurier, one of Ottawa’s signature downtown buildings.

This week, Public Works and Government Services Canada invited parties interested in renovating, owning, leasing and operating the 40-year-old marble-clad office complex at Bank Street and Laurier Avenue to submit a response by Sept. 28.

That will kick off a three-stage competitive process leading to a contract to rehabilitate 66,000 square metres of office space, 2,000 square metres of storage space, parking space and common areas starting in September 2017.

The target date for completing the work in one of the complex’s two 23-storey towers is July 31, 2020, with work in the second tower finished a year later.

The building is already nearly 75 per cent empty. About 1,200 employees of the Department of Finance moved into new quarters last year in the James Michael Flaherty Building at 90 Elgin St.

In addition, employees of the Treasury Board Secretariat began moving into the Flaherty building in April. By the end of this month, about 1,500 Treasury Board staff — about 65 per cent of the total — will have moved out of L’Esplanade Laurier.

The remaining public servants in the complex’s east tower will be relocated to a newly leased facility, Public Works said in an email.

Building vacancy is required, Public Works said, because the towers require “mid-life rehabilitation, including upgrading of mechanical and electrical systems, safety systems, sustainability as well as fit-up of floors.”

Once the project is complete, between 4,000 and 5,000 employees will work in the building.

“Many departments have shown interest, given the prime location of the building,” Public Works said. “However, we cannot confirm which departments will occupy the new towers at this stage.”

The government has not revealed the cost of the renovation, but firms responding to the invitation to submit must have worked on two construction projects costing at least $75 million.

L’Esplanade Laurier was purpose-built for the federal government by Olympia and York between 1973 and 1975.

The developer leased space to the federal government before selling the building to the Rosdev Group in 1995. The federal government purchased it for $20 million in 2010.