The 340,000 square feet of retail or commercial space proposed in the Lansdowne Partnership Plan is viable and warranted, according to the third study to examine the issue.
Last August, the Glebe Business Improvement Area released a report from the Market Research Corporation that concluded that the “maximum capacity for additional supportable commercial space within the Glebe BIA, including Lansdowne Park, is recommended to be up to 36,200 square feet during the next three years.”
However, that finding was countered by a report from Tate Economic Research for the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group that concluded the Glebe could not only support an extra 300,000 square feet of retail space, but other businesses may actually benefit from the increased traffic it would bring to the area.
A peer review by Malone Given Parsons sided with the Tate report, stating that “the MRC Report findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon with specific regard to market demand, opportunity, and support for the retail and commercial component of the Lansdowne Park redevelopment project.”
Glebe BIA executive director Catherine Lindquist stood by the results of the MRC report.“We think he was very thorough,” she said. “We still need to know what specifically [the retail space] is made up of. Size matters, but content matters too.”
