PENTAGON NORTH TIMELINE

December 1958: Northern Electric picks Carling site for a central R&D lab.

May 1961: Lab 1 opens with about 250 employees. 1965: Lab 2 added.

Jan. 1, 1971: Nortel and Bell Canada launch a global joint venture, Bell-Northern Research, to be headquartered on the Carling campus.

1984: Lab 3 opened to consolidate scientific and technical staff.

1990: Lab 4 built to facilitate R&D into optoelectronic devices.

1993: Lab 5 unveiled, with its five-storey cathedral-style glass tower.

June 6, 1997: Nortel reveals plan to invest $250 million in a massive 75 per cent expansion of the Carling campus and construction of new facilities elsewhere in the Ottawa region. The company would go on to hire 5,000 additional workers in Ottawa by the year 2000, bringing the total to more than 15,000.

2000: Nortel at flood tide — Carling campus includes 2.1 million square feet of labs and office space distributed through 11 buildings. Workforce there tops 8,500.

2001: Nortel begins its historic downsizing as the market for optical networking and other telecom gear hits a wall.

2008: Department of National Defence launches strategy for consolidating its unwieldy network of facilities in the national capital region.

Jan. 14, 2009: Nortel files for bankruptcy protection.

December 2010: Treasury Board approves $208-million purchase of Nortel’s Carling campus by Public Works.

June 17, 2013: Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions wins initial $338 million, fouryear contract to maintain buildings on the Carling campus and Tunney’s Pasture. The former Nortel buildings account for 2.1 million of 5.2 million square feet.

December 2013: Treasury Board approves project to move DND headquarters to Carling campus. Cost of project, including purchase of Carling campus, currently estimated at nearly $800 million. June 2014: Brookfield GIS begins refit of former Nortel Labs 6, 7, 8 and 9 under a $96-million contract.

June 2015: Treasury Board approves implementation of Phase 2 – involving Labs 2, 3, 5 and the Pavilion building.

March 31, 2016: Original target to complete move of 3,410 DND employees onto Carling Campus in Phase 1.

November 2016: New target to begin moving DND workers in Phase 1, with shift to be completed by March 31, 2017, about one year late.

October 2017: Public Works to seek Treasury Board approval to implement Phase 3 – involving Lab 10.

March 31, 2018: Unchanged target to complete move of 3,900 DND workers in Phase 2. March 31, 2019: Unchanged target for finishing move of 1,900 DND employees in Phase 3.