That cost is on top of the $208 million the federal government paid to buy the campus at 3500 Carling Ave.
The Defence Department is looking at moving into the site over the next five to seven years, transferring around 10,000 civilian and military personnel located at other offices in Ottawa and Gatineau to the new site.
The costs to prepare the site involve everything from creating new offices to installing secure computer networks. A new operational command building will also be located at the site. The Nortel complex has 12 buildings.
Asked about the cost of preparing the campus for occupancy, the Defence Department responded with an email stating: “The Department of National Defence and the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada must request project and expenditure approval from Government through the requisite submission process and, as such, cannot speak to cost estimates at this time.”
But Defence Department documents obtained by The Citizen show that DND has already determined that cost. “The DND fit-up costs over the next five to seven years of the project are estimated at $633.2 M(illion),” those documents point out.
In its email response, the Defence Department also did not provide the numbers of employees to be relocated or a specific timeline for occupancy, other than noting that it will “commence in a few years” and that thousands would move.
However, the DND documents show that the department plans to move around 10,000 employees to the Nortel campus. DND had originally hoped to start moving staff by the end of this year, but that is unlikely at this point.
The move to the former Nortel campus will reduce the number of Defence Department and Canadian Forces locations in Ottawa and Gatineau from 48 to seven or less.
“Consolidating the majority of our NCR operations onto the Defence Campus will reduce operational and accommodation costs, strengthen departmental security, and enable us to work more efficiently and effectively,” the DND email noted.
Public Works announced in December that it had purchased Nortel’s Carling Avenue campus for $208 million, with the main tenant to be the Department of National Defence.
But both DND civilian employees and military staff, many of whom live in Orléans, have voiced concern about the long commute they face.
Seventy-two per cent of the military and Defence Department staff are in Ottawa, with 28 per cent in Gatineau, according to the DND documents. DND plans to try to retain that ratio, they add.
DND’s main headquarters, the Major-General George R. Pearkes Building on Colonel By Drive, and its facility on Star Top Road will continue to be used. The Pearkes building was intended for Transport Canada, but in 1974 became DND headquarters.
DND’s presence in the Louis St. Laurent building, the National Printing Bureau building and the Hotel de Ville building in Gatineau will continue.
As far as the other DND locations throughout Ottawa and Gatineau, the government will allow leases to run out. In some cases, other federal departments will use the properties.
Claude Séguin, the director general of portfolio management for Public Works and Government Services, told a commercial real-estate conference last year that the government will empty 93,000 square metres of office space in downtown Ottawa over the next three to five years. The space is equal to 10 per cent of current federal space and about the size of L’Esplanade Laurier.
In 2008, DND came up with its long-term office accommodation strategy, which included a reduced headquarters building at Colonel By Drive, a continued presence in Gatineau and a consolidated campus that included a new operational command building.
Public Works says before it decided to purchase the Nortel campus it undertook various studies to assess the condition of the buildings, systems, elevators and campus infrastructure. It was determined that the infrastructure had been well maintained and was in above-average condition for their age and type.
The campus consists of approximately 28 hectares that was owned by Nortel and 120 hectares leased from the National Capital Commission.
Claude Séguin, the director general of portfolio management for Public Works and Government Services, told a commercial real-estate conference last year that the government will empty 93,000 square metres of office space in downtown Ottawa over the next three to five years. The space is equal to 10 per cent of current federal space and about the size of L’Esplanade Laurier.
In 2008, DND came up with its long-term office accommodation strategy, which included a reduced headquarters building at Colonel By Drive, a continued presence in Gatineau and a consolidated campus that included a new operational command building.
Public Works says before it decided to purchase the Nortel campus it undertook various studies to assess the condition of the buildings, systems, elevators and campus infrastructure. It was determined that the infrastructure had been well maintained and was in above-average condition for their age and type.
The campus consists of approximately 28 hectares that was owned by Nortel and 120 hectares leased from the National Capital Commission.
Origin
Source: Ottawa Citizen
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