Live Nation Concert Venue | 50 Rideau St.

[Dzingle Bells]

New live entertainment venue to open at 47–57 Rideau Street​

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is excited to announce that it has signed an offer to lease agreement with Live Nation Canada, a global entertainment leader, for the operation of a live music and entertainment venue at 47–57 Rideau, the former Chapters bookstore site.

This mid-size music venue will bring renewed life to the downtown core by bringing thousands of people to a variety of live events at the site each year. At a time when downtown cores are seeking new amenities and destinations to increase urban vibrancy post-COVID, the opening of this concert venue will be a welcome addition to the City’s entertainment and hospitality offerings by offering a range of different artists and musical genres. The expected opening date is in late 2025, after the necessary renovations are made to the building.

Located on Confederation Boulevard, bordering the ByWard Market and Parliamentary Precinct and steps way from rapid transit, the site is adjacent to the NCC’s heritage properties along Sussex Drive known as the Mile of History and across the street from the Rideau Centre.

“The NCC is pleased to play a positive role in the collective efforts of local partners to revitalize the downtown core of the Capital post-COVID. This new state-of-the-art live music and entertainment venue in the heart of downtown will be a great destination for residents and visitors, contribute to increased economic activity for local restaurants and shops, and generate vibrancy and excitement for the National Capital Region as a whole.”
—Tobi Nussbaum, NCC Chief Executive Officer

“Ottawa remains one of the country’s most important markets for live music and our goal is to create a vibrant space where artists and fans can come together to enjoy an unparalleled live entertainment experience. This new establishment will undoubtedly become a cornerstone of the local entertainment scene and a beloved destination for years to come.”
—Wayne Zronik, President of Business Operations, Live Nation Canada

About 47–57 Rideau Street:

The 47–57 Rideau Street property offers 3,805 m2 of space above ground and an additional 2,230 m2 of basement space in a building formerly occupied by the Chapters bookstore. This building is considered to be part of the National Interest Land Mass (NILM) due to its prominent location along Confederation Boulevard and its proximity to many Ottawa landmarks.

About Live Nation Entertainment:

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.

https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/news/new-live...-street?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

 

[J.OT13]

Hoping it will be a Dan Aykroyd House of Blues, him being from Ottawa.

Here's Live Nations "History" venue in Toronto, which is roughly what we can expect. Space for 2,500 people in this particular venue.

THE SCOOP | Meet History: Toronto’s New 2,500 Seat Concert Venue Backed By Drake

Announced today, Live Nation has partnered with Toronto rapper Drake to open History, a new 2,500-seat concert venue.

www.ludwig-van.com

 

[urbottawa]

Awesome news!

Could be cool if the name was some sort of reference to the iconic Café le Hibou that was a block over

 

[lakeofthewood]

Incredible! Always great to have more music venues in the city. Would be interesting to see a list of official capacities of the various small to mid-sized music venues we have. Thinking of things in the range of Bronson Centre, NAC auditoriums, Algonquin, etc.

 

[zzptichka]

Hoping it will be a Dan Aykroyd House of Blues, him being from Ottawa.

Here's Live Nations "History" venue in Toronto, which is roughly what we can expect. Space for 2,500 people in this particular venue.

View attachment 571655

THE SCOOP | Meet History: Toronto’s New 2,500 Seat Concert Venue Backed By Drake

Announced today, Live Nation has partnered with Toronto rapper Drake to open History, a new 2,500-seat concert venue.

www.ludwig-van.com

That seems too big for a building that wasn't meant to have a stage.
Let's see what they can do with those columns

 

[originalmuffins]

New live entertainment venue to open at 47–57 Rideau Street​

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is excited to announce that it has signed an offer to lease agreement with Live Nation Canada, a global entertainment leader, for the operation of a live music and entertainment venue at 47–57 Rideau, the former Chapters bookstore site.

This mid-size music venue will bring renewed life to the downtown core by bringing thousands of people to a variety of live events at the site each year. At a time when downtown cores are seeking new amenities and destinations to increase urban vibrancy post-COVID, the opening of this concert venue will be a welcome addition to the City’s entertainment and hospitality offerings by offering a range of different artists and musical genres. The expected opening date is in late 2025, after the necessary renovations are made to the building.

Located on Confederation Boulevard, bordering the ByWard Market and Parliamentary Precinct and steps way from rapid transit, the site is adjacent to the NCC’s heritage properties along Sussex Drive known as the Mile of History and across the street from the Rideau Centre.

“The NCC is pleased to play a positive role in the collective efforts of local partners to revitalize the downtown core of the Capital post-COVID. This new state-of-the-art live music and entertainment venue in the heart of downtown will be a great destination for residents and visitors, contribute to increased economic activity for local restaurants and shops, and generate vibrancy and excitement for the National Capital Region as a whole.”
—Tobi Nussbaum, NCC Chief Executive Officer

“Ottawa remains one of the country’s most important markets for live music and our goal is to create a vibrant space where artists and fans can come together to enjoy an unparalleled live entertainment experience. This new establishment will undoubtedly become a cornerstone of the local entertainment scene and a beloved destination for years to come.”
—Wayne Zronik, President of Business Operations, Live Nation Canada

About 47–57 Rideau Street:

The 47–57 Rideau Street property offers 3,805 m2 of space above ground and an additional 2,230 m2 of basement space in a building formerly occupied by the Chapters bookstore. This building is considered to be part of the National Interest Land Mass (NILM) due to its prominent location along Confederation Boulevard and its proximity to many Ottawa landmarks.

About Live Nation Entertainment:

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.

https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/news/new-live...-street?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

This is a much needed win, especially after we lost that venue from Lansdowne. Glad to see it going near Rideau, it'll be a big help for the area.

 

[J.OT13]

That seems too big for a building that wasn't meant to have a stage.
Let's see what they can do with those columns

Absolutely. It will be very interesting to see how they convert such a building into a music venue. I feel like it will require a near total rebuild of the structure.

City of Ottawa hiring consultants to study how nearby developments could affect Central Experimental Farm

Ted Raymond
Published June 13, 2024 4:00 a.m. EDT

The City of Ottawa will be hiring consultants to study how building up developments near the Central Experimental Farm could affect the farmlands.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has raised concerns about two housing developments close to the farm because the height of the proposed buildings could cast longer shadows onto the farm and, in turn, negatively affect the ability for scientists to conduct research. Despite objections from the federal agency, however, Ottawa City Council approved high-rise developments on Baseline Road(opens in a new tab) and Carling Avenue(opens in a new tab) after several debates.

During the process of approving these developments, the Planning and Housing Committee introduced a direction to staff to form a working group with the National Capital Commission (NCC) and AAFC. Its goal is to develop the terms of reference for a plan to assess and mitigate potential effects of future development on the scientific and heritage values associated with the farm as a National Historic Site of Canada and research institution.

According to a report prepared for the Planning and Housing Committee, the City will spend up to $50,000 this summer to hire consultants to prepare development scenarios for lands next to the farm and to recommend ways things like shadowing can be reduced. Staff say the funding for the consulting assignment can be accommodated from existing budgets as a result of the re-prioritization of planned studies.

AAFC, meanwhile, will provide a map of research activities on the farm to the working group and provide other geographic data. The City and AAFC will use the data and the reports prepared by the consultants to create digital 3D models, conduct shadow analyses, and show shadow impacts on specific research activities on the Central Experimental Farm.

The team will work on policy recommendations over the fall and winter with the aim of presenting to Planning and Housing Committee next spring.

"Options may include but are not limited to: City policy and/or guideline revisions or procedural changes, and considerations by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada regarding the future use of impacted Central Experimental Farm lands," the report states.

"Public consultation will depend on the options and recommendations that are proposed by the Working Group. If the recommendations include policy amendments that would require a development application under the Planning Act, such as an Official Plan Amendment, the appropriate public consultation processes will follow."

Coun. Riley Brockington, who introduced the motion to create the working group, said he is pleased to see it take shape.

"As lands abutting the Farm are developed over time, a concrete understanding of how prime agricultural research lands may be impacted and mitigation strategies to employ, is very much needed. I support this wholeheartedly," he said in the report.

The Planning and Housing Committee meets on June 19.

Ottawa Council approves multi-tower development across the street from Central Experimental Farm

Ottawa City Council has given the green light for two residential towers to be built across the street from the Central Experimental Farm, despite concerns from the federal government about the effects that shadows cast by the towers would have on research.

ottawa.ctvnews.ca

After we've approved a whole bunch of towers around the farm. Yeah, NOW seems like the right time, not five years ago. .

 

[hoggytime]

Location: 50 Rideau St. - Former Chapter's Space

Previous discussion on SSP Ottawa

 

[urbottawa]

Site is fenced off and work seems to have started

 

[hoggytime]

Site is fenced off and work seems to have started

I wonder if the exterior is being revamped... it's pretty drab in it's current state.

 

[J.OT13]

Live Nation Canada president has high hopes for new ByWard Market club

"It is a big investment for us, but it feels like the stars aligned. It’s the perfect location,” Ottawa-born Erik Hoffman says.

Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen
Published Oct 26, 2024

The live-music venue coming to the ByWard Market area in 2025 will be a two-level concert hall with a capacity of 2,000 people, Erik Hoffman, the Ottawa-born president of Live Nation Canada, said during a hometown visit this week.

He described the project as an “overdue space” for Ottawa and the continuation of a model launched in Toronto with History, the 2,500-capacity nightclub that’s the result of a partnership between Live Nation and music superstar Drake.

Like History, the new club will designate the ground-floor space in front of the stage for a general-admission audience (i.e. standing or dancing), but also offer seating on the upper level.

“It’s a model that a lot of music fans really love,” Hoffman said, pointing to its popularity in Europe and the United States. “It’s sort of a soft-seat theatre with the soul of a nightclub. We feel it will be hugely successful here.”

In Ottawa, the new club is a partnership between Live Nation and the National Capital Commission, but it will also be open to independent promoters who don’t work for Live Nation.

“It will be a local venue open to local promoters,” Hoffman said, name dropping Bluesfest’s Mark Monahan and Spectrasonic’s Shawn Scallen as examples of Ottawa promoters whose shows would be welcome.

Construction on the venue is scheduled to start this fall, Hoffman said, with an “ambitious” opening date targeted for late 2025.

For the man who described himself as a music-industry “lifer,” the new venture marks a full-circle moment, he told an early-morning crowd gathered at Ottawa City Hall for Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s monthly breakfast event. The journalist-elected-mayor dusted off his interview skills for a fireside-type chat with the music exec.

When the conversation turned to his start in the industry, Hoffman reminisced about his teenage years as the house sound person at the Pit, a long-gone Rideau Street basement club.

“It’s full circle in that it was one city block from where we’re planning the new project,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman was also a key partner in PRS Concerts, the independent Ottawa concert-promotion company of the early 2000s. He helped design and operate the former Capital Music Hall, a 1,000-capacity Rideau Street venue that lasted a couple of years in the mid-2000s before it was torn down to make way for condo towers.

Hoffman believes it’s the ideal time to launch a new music venture in Ottawa. The live-music industry is a rapidly growing part of the Canadian economy, and Live Nation is on track to rack up another record-setting year.

“Why would we not invest here?” Hoffman said, noting that a spacious club was “quite clearly a segment that’s missing from the market in terms of venues.”

He sees a vibrant downtown economy growing along with a new venue, as well as the development of a downtown arena for the Ottawa Senators.

“It’s a very exciting time,” Hoffman said. “The fact that investment is on the doorstep says to operators like us (that) we’re in it together. I’m also hoping this is the beginning of a kickoff for folks to open new small clubs, too.

“Something’s going on here,” he added. “We see restaurants opening and creativity coming to life in other segments of the business. It is a big investment for us, but it feels like the stars aligned. It’s the perfect location.”

The new venue will occupy the commercial space at Rideau Street and Confederation Boulevard that formerly housed a Chapters bookstore. Empty since 2022, it’s located next to the Rideau Centre and the ByWard Market and easily accessible by public transit.

NCC specifications peg the size at 3,805 square metres of space above ground, with an additional 2,230 square metres of basement space. Live Nation Canada reached a deal to lease the space from the NCC last spring.

As for the city’s role in fostering the music business and nightlife economy, Hoffman said it was off to a good start because different facets of the industry already worked together.

“That’s very unique to Ottawa,” he observed. “There’s a feeling of moving ahead together.”

But he also cautioned the mayor to reduce the red tape and “irritating” bylaws.

“Cities always ask what can we do and there’s funding and all of the things that are obvious answers, like putting money into the arts. But it’s also, ‘Get out of the way.’ Let’s not have a bunch of policy and irritating outdated bylaws get in the way.

“If you really want to be a music city, if you’re actually serious about it, let’s not get hung up on the things that irritate creators, and that’s way too much policy and red tape to do anything. That was traditionally a problem here. I think it’s changing now.

“But that’s what you can do to help. Set the table for it to happen and then watch the creators do what they do.”

https://ottawacitizen.com/entertainm...rd-market-club

 

[J.OT13]

I wonder if the exterior is being revamped... it's pretty drab in it's current state.

Hope they restore the Rideau facade back to the old red brick. Way more work was done on the back side. Don't know what it looked like in the Woolworth days or how they could restore it.

 

[hoggytime]

That would be a fantastic little upgrade to the Rideau Street facade.

As for the back, I only ask they make it look better than the Toronto Live Nation bunker.

 

[SweazyCavalry]

Maybe they can take a cue from L'Impérial Bell

 

[urbottawa]

Live Nation Canada to make announcement about new entertainment venue in downtown Ottawa​

By Josh Pringle
Published: February 19, 2025 at 9:34AM EST

The former site of Chapters on Rideau Street. Jan. 26, 2024 (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)
Live Nation Canada will unveil its plans to build a new music and entertainment venue in Ottawa’s ByWard Market.

Last July, the National Capital Commission announced an agreement to lease the former Chapters building on Rideau Street to Live Nation, to create a new venue in the downtown core.

• Live Nation to open live music venue at former Chapters building

Live Nation Canada representatives and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe will speak at the event Wednesday morning.

“This announcement will impact Ottawa’s entertainment industry, bringing new and exciting opportunities to the region,” Live Nation said in a statement.

The NCC purchased the former Chapters building for a sale price of $20 million. Chapters closed the location in 2022 when parent company Indigo opened a new store in the CF Rideau Centre.

The property located a 47-57 Rideau Street offers 3,805 square metres of space above ground and 2,230 square metres of basement space. Live Nation confirmed the expected capacity for the venue on Rideau Street will be 2,000 people.


With files from CTV News Ottawa’s William Eltherington
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...t-new-entertainment-venue-in-downtown-ottawa/