{"id":2893,"date":"2013-03-14T09:55:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T14:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2017-11-19T19:27:47","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:27:47","slug":"new-innovation-centre-will-allow-ottawa-to-grow-more-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2893","title":{"rendered":"New innovation centre will allow Ottawa to grow more businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The 80 Aberdeen <\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce Lazenby stands at a podium at Ottawa City Hall, beaming at the waiting cameras and reporters. The head of Invest Ottawa was there to announce the success of the city\u2019s economic development agency\u2019s newest venture capital fund in Ottawa in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

But he had even more to smile about.<\/p>\n

About an hour later the city\u2019s finance committee agreed to support Invest Ottawa\u2019s proposal to move from Little Italy to Bayview Yards, and create an \u201cinnovation centre\u201d to help start-up companies and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

In reality, Lazenby says the \u201cinnovation centre\u201d is more office space and room to help companies network and raise money.<\/p>\n

Invest Ottawa officially opened for business at 80 Aberdeen Street in Feb. 2012.<\/p>\n

OUT OF SPACE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Less than a year later with 36 companies, 100 entrepreneurs and roughly 1000 people a month using their space and services, they have run out of space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about the new location and its position,\u201d said Bruce Lazenby, Invest Ottawa\u2019s president and CEO.<\/p>\n

Lazenby said the new space will be near the intersection of the Light Rail Transit system and the O-Train.<\/p>\n

He says that intersection will prove vital, with hopes of encouraging more students from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa to use their services.<\/p>\n

The city has agreed to donate building space in the Bayview Yards to the proposed innovation centre. The municipality has also declared the project \u00a0will be a Capital Investment Track property (which ensures help from the city in facilitation).<\/p>\n

A NEW SITE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new site will feature 100,000 square feet of office space as well as studio space to help boost Ottawa\u2019s fledgling film industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last, large tract of land left in the city,\u201d said Mayor Jim Watson. \u201cWe have a great opportunity left before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson and the Finance Committee presented no objections to the report and loudly lent their support.<\/p>\n

The new office space is scheduled to open in 2016 and will feature areas for private sector and non-profit use.<\/p>\n

With additional support for the project pledged by the provincial government, to the tune of $15 million, Invest Ottawa has the chance to mirror the success seen \u00a0in similar innovation hubs in Waterloo, Toronto and Kingston.<\/p>\n

Innovation centres, like the proposed site for Bayview, have sprung up across Ontario with more people looking for help to get their businesses off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ottawa has all the ingredients…there\u2019s an opportunity to bring companies back together,\u201d said Avvey Peters, vice president of external relations for Communitech – a Waterloo innovation centre.<\/p>\n

THE COMMUNITECH MODEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Communitech started in 1997 and has emerged as one of the province\u2019s premier hubs.<\/p>\n

They help companies network and meet investors, as well as lend advice and support.<\/p>\n

In 2010 they were given $26 million by the Ontario government and turned it in to a $107 million investment centre and digital marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is that there are very typical ingredients to successful clusters of centres,\u201d said Peters. \u201cYou need good sources of talent, you need good strong technology companies and you need companies at all stages of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa has a long way to come before they are close to matching Communitech, which may boast smaller office space but houses close to 120 companies in its building.<\/p>\n

A report by Deloitte estimated that from 2008 to 2011, Communitech generated roughly $840 million in economic activity, through start up companies.<\/p>\n

Lazenby freely admits Invest Ottawa would be studying similar centres across Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to steal all of their ideas,\u201d Lazenby said. \u201cOne disadvantage we\u2019ve had is that we were one of the last communities to have a centre but the good news is we can now learn from [other centres].\u201d<\/p>\n

With three years, and backing from the province and city, Invest Ottawa has more than enough time to craft a plan for Ottawa\u2019s next step on the business stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 80 Aberdeen Bruce Lazenby stands at a podium at Ottawa City Hall, beaming at the waiting cameras and reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[171,169,168,170,60],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bayview-yards","tag-bruce-lazenby","tag-communitech","tag-invest-ottawa","tag-nick-wells"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4479,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}