The organization planned to sell an old schoolhouse (which was last renovated in the 1970s) and use the proceeds to relocate to a new office space which better suited its operations.
The ODAWA Native Friendship Centre purchased 12 Stirling Avenue from the Ottawa School Board in the early 1990s. 12 Stirling Avenue is an old schoolhouse that had been partially renovated in the 1970s. The building had significant deferred maintenance and was very expensive to operate. ODAWA needed to sell the school building, recover its equity, and move to something that better suited its operations.
The building was on a heritage watch-list and had significant amounts of asbestos present within the structure. In addition, the local community association had shown itself to be somewhat adversarial to the development community.
Proveras’ senior leaders were engaged by ODAWA to oversee the disposition process. The team assessed the challenges associated with the site and determined that the best future use for the property would be a complete redevelopment.
In order to cast the widest possible net, the team targeted a vast array of commercial, residential and boutique commercial development firms. In addition to the task of gaining the attention of prospective purchasers, we had to mitigate the challenges that were associated with the site by presenting its strengths and the positive future-outlook for the Hintonburg submarket.
As a result of this very competitive process, and despite the challenges associated with the property, ODAWA was able to achieve a sale price that was above expectations, which will allow them to transition to a new facility that is better suited to thier program requirements. The purchaser of 12 Stirling Avenue has demonstrated his intention to retain the old schoolhouse as part of the redevelopment, thus improving the community while maintaining a piece of its history for the residents to enjoy.