One of the big stories over the last year or so for the Ottawa media has been moving the headquarters of the RCMP.
At first, the Harper government agreed to pay $600–million over 25 years to rent andd then buy for $1 a suite of buildings that once housed a technology company in Ottawa. But then word got out that the lobbyist acting for the developer was a well-connected Conservative.
So, in an attempt to avoid the appearance that it was handing out a mega-buck contract without due process, Public Works made one last call for offers. But in the end, Public Works still came back to the building at 3000 Merivale Road that once housed the Ottawa workforce of technology high-flier JDS Uniphase Corp.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who is the cabinet minister responsible for the Mounties, just issued this release which seals the deal.
Here’s how The Ottawa Citizen described the property:
JDS Uniphase built the 900,000-square-foot complex for about $200 million and at the height of the technology boom, it housed most of the company's 11,000 employees. JDS sold the campus to Minto for about $28 million and it has been standing virtually empty since the purchase last summer.
… for the RCMP, which is squeezed for space, the former technology hub seems like a perfect fit. With several thousand employees in buildings scattered across Ottawa, including its headquarters at 1200 Vanier Parkway, the police force was looking for ways to consolidate operations at one site.
The RCMP considered several options, including renovating and upgrading the Nicholson Building on Vanier Parkway, constructing a new building at its headquarters and adding space to other RCMP locations.
But the force settled on the JDS complex which, featuring eight buildings connected by an atrium, a 300-seat auditorium, gym, laboratories and wiring to accommodate computer systems, has the space, technology and security to meet its needs