We encouraged the owner of the Vox to demolish the eyesore and begin decontamination of the site ahead of schedule and before a new owner was found. The owner cooperated nicely and the renewal of Bells Corners was under way.

“Everyone says it will never work…That is the one essential ingredient in every great success story”
        • Lloyd Dobler, Say Anything, by Cameron Crowe.

I have lived in Bells Corners for over 20 years but it didn’t fall under my jurisdiction until the start of last term on Council. In a community with many who don’t like change, most still recognized that this area had reached a low point and needed dramatic change just to survive as a sustainable community featuring both jobs and residents. Bells Corners needed to be reborn.

A few decades ago Bells Corners boomed because shoppers had to go there. The business strip didn’t need to do anything to thrive because it was the only game in town. But as Kanata, Barrhaven and Ottawa West developed their own sizable shopping areas, that success melted away. The disintegration of Bells Corners’ biggest employer, Nortel, was really the final blow that left its business sector with a 40% bite taken out of its traditional customer base.

We all set to work. When I initiated the creation of an association of Bells Corners businesses (Business Improvement Area, or “BIA”) many thought the businesses would not buy-in to the long term potential just because they wouldn’t want to pay the annual costs of financing the organization and its investments in the community. But, at formation, the Bells Corners BIA had fewer objectors than any BIA formation in recent memory.

Together with economic development experts, we took a look at what should be our obvious market niche and, for the first time, we have a “focus” that is taking advantage of the fact that seven out of 10 tourists to Ottawa are not coming to see the Parliament Buildings but are, instead, coming to participate in the Capital’s dozens of annual festivals and hockey and soccer tournaments.

Bells Corners is located at the confluence of the 416, the Queensway, Hwy 7 and Hunt Club Road. That means those festival and tournament visitors, who are almost all driving into town, actually have to pass Bells Corners on their way. Our new hospitality focus is growing our hotel, drug store and restaurant presence in order to get some of those visitors to stop here and enjoy some better prices and our unique access to the Greenbelt, biking, free parking and other amenities – very appealing to those who want to avoid the pressure-packed downtown.

We have made successful improvements already. These help build on our focus and grow back our business sector’s previously vanishing customer base.

The rebuild began with some take downs. We were able to convince the owners of the iconic eyesore building formerly known as the Vox to demolish their building ahead of schedule. The decontamination process is well underway on the site. The building has been for sale for many months and we have been working to encourage potential applicants who are specifically geared toward constructing something on the site that is within the strip’s new hospitality focus. There is a good chance that, very soon, a hotel will made a bid for the property. That would give us a critical mass of hotels which would form a legitimate “cluster” on online booking sites like Expedia – and that means proven synergy for all in the cluster.

In the event that a hotel does not make a bid, we have also been trying to attract highrise residential builders to consider the property.

Further down the strip, the old Hooters building will soon come down. Tim Hortons will build a new larger store at the site. After public consultation, I have just signed-off on site plan approval so construction can begin very soon.

So you see, the welcome demolitions are leading to more renewal and construction. Sidewalks have been reconstructed through much of the main business strip, after receiving significant public input, we enjoyed the very successful creation of one single road name for the strip (the whole road will soon be called “Robertson Road” instead of the former two names on the same street, Richmond and Robertson which was confusing to the out-of-towners we are now trying to attract), we have installed a new signalized intersection at Timm Drive to improve traffic flow on event days at Scotiabank Place and, of course, thanks to the the support of people like MP Pierre Poilievre and John Baird, we have a new large employer coming to Bells Corners with the location of DND where Nortel used to be.

Change is always difficult for some, but in Bells Corners most demand it. They see that the pieces are falling into place. The foundation for success is being poured. They also see that Bells Corners today is dramatically better than the Bells Corners of four years ago. And that, as we consult with residents in 2012 on an improved vision for the area, a decade from now, things will be even better as Bells Corners becomes a place go to, instead of a place to drive through.