For 40 years, the Canada Council Art Bank has been collecting work by the best Canadian Artists of our times. The Art bank is currently the world’s largest collection of contemporary Canadian art with over 17,000 paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures. The Art Bank needed specialized storage space to house this exceptional collection.
The Art Bank is a not for profit subsidiary of the Canada Council for the Arts, which is a Crown Corporation of Canada. Because of this, there were strict budgetary parameters that had to be adhered to for the search. Also, a building suitable for the storage of precious art must have superior temperature and humidity controls.
The Art Bank was housed in a building that was prohibitively expensive given its use and budgetary reality. Our principals leveraged their deep knowledge of the Ottawa market in order to find a building in the Ottawa Business Park that was formerly leased by the Museum of Nature as a storage facility.
By leveraging the market conditions and the strong covenant of the Art Bank, our principals were able to negotiate a highly favorable lease agreement that saw improvements made to 921 St. Laurent Boulevard which brought the building up to a standard that offered the right image, while staying within the Art Bank’s preferred budget.
The Art Bank was able to relocate its accommodations to a new building that met all of the financial and non-financial objectives set out as the goals for the project. Now, the Art Bank is able to operate in an environment that is in keeping with their preferred image, and provides potential visitors with easy access to their facilities.