The RA Centre wants to replace its aging facility on Riverside Drive with a new building that would include affordable housing as part of a $100-million redevelopment project, its chief executive says.\u00a0 The original RA Centre opened in 1941 as a volunteer-run recreation centre for federal public servants on land where Carleton University is now [\u2026]<\/p>\n
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The RA Centre wants to replace its aging facility on Riverside Drive with a new building that would include affordable housing as part of a $100-million redevelopment project, its chief executive says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original RA Centre opened in 1941 as a volunteer-run recreation centre for federal public servants on land where Carleton University is now located.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the early 1950s, the facility needed a new home to accommodate its growing membership. In 1953, the organization\u2019s board of directors signed a 100-year lease on federal land on Riverside Drive, where the RA Centre\u2019s current home was built and opened in 1958.<\/p>\n
However, the building is quickly becoming obsolete, RA Centre chief executive Ian Fraser told OBJ this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are this large facility that serves about 25,000 people on a regular basis, plunked in the middle of the city of Ottawa,\u201d he said. \u201cParts of it are 70 years old, and it really is at end of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fraser said the RA Centre is \u201cin the early stages of planning to build a new facility on the same site.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new 200,000-square-foot facility would be built on the northeast corner of the RA Centre\u2019s current property, he said. It would include amenities such as a lifestyle medicine hub, flexible gym spaces, multi-purpose community rooms, and courts for basketball, volleyball and racket sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a stacked design, so it would be multi-floored,\u201d Fraser explained, adding the facility will continue to offer \u201call of the amazing things that we are currently successful at.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, the RA Centre\u2019s proposal includes a 16-storey tower with affordable housing units.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur initial planning would have it right above and attached to the build that we\u2019re planning to do,\u201d Fraser said. \u201cWe\u2019ve felt that we sit on a really valuable piece of property here and we think that, given the real need for good affordable housing in our community and the city\u2019s approach to building more of that, we can really help add to that whole process. We\u2019re certainly open to looking at ideas for facilitating more affordable housing on-site, and it\u2019s a big part of our go-forward strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said initial estimates peg the project\u2019s total price tag at more than $100 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n