Rondyn musings: Trailhead building in Westboro has been sold

Monday, September 22, 2014

Trailhead building in Westboro has been sold

Happy trails, Trailhead!!!!

Sadly, the Trailhead building in Westboro has been sold! The developer next door (see the cranes in the background of attached picture), BridgePort Realty Capital Partners, has bought the building, probably with the intention of demolition and expanding their already enormous project on McRae between Scott and Richmond. The days are numbered for this beautiful, all wood structure that has been an Ottawa landmark since 1991.

The building was started in 1990 by partners Chris Harris and Wally Schaber after they bought a piece of property at the corner of Scott & McRae. They put together their own architecture plans and construction crew and built, what was at the time, the biggest post and beam building of its kind in Eastern Canada. Trailhead’s new Westboro home was finished in December 1991, and has been a destination for outdoor enthusiasts from all over ever since. Now, 25 years later, it may be demolished in 2016 when this purchase agreement comes into effect. We will be losing an iconic landmark that can never be replaced.

The new development on McRae is set to be completed in early 2015. This so called "Westboro Connection" will be a mixed-use development including two towers that are connected by a street-front retail podium and two levels of underground parking and a seven-story office building. The residential component includes 126 rental apartment units. How interesting that something called "Westboro Connection" is actually removing an historic landmark that connects Westboro to its past.

The news release also states "there will also be surface parking on the site". Since the current site is one big hole that will be completely occupied by the new buildings, it sounds to me like the developer needed the Trailhead building for this promised "surface parking". What a waste. As Joni Mitchell would sing, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

And what will happen to the Trailhead business? And the other small businesses renting space from Trailhead? What a coincidence! New retail spaces, probably at much higher rent, just became available next door.

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