Place Bell

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Place Bell at 160 Elgin Street

Place Bell is one of the tallest buildings in Ottawa, Canada (the fifth tallest in the downtown area). The 27 storey building stands on Elgin Street in the city's downtown, and is distinguishable by the wide nature (the building is unusually large in dimensions considering its height, presumably to avoid having a 50+ storey building greatly overshadow the Peace Tower). It was built by Olympia and York in 1971 as the Ottawa headquarters of Bell Canada. The site originally contained a number of small commercial buildings a the large Gloucester Street Convent. Original plans called for the complex to be much larger, and include the entire block to the north. This would have entailed to demolishing of several heritage buildings, including the First Baptist Church. The main level contains a shopping concourse with a number of businesses. The rear of the structure contains a parking garage. In the 1980s the owners sued the city after salt placed on the roads by the city corroded the steel structure of the garage and it had to be closed for several years.

Bell, which remains the building's largest tenant, owned the building until they sold it to TrizecHahn in 1998 from some $170 million. After the purchase TrizecHahn conducted significant renovations. In 2002 it was bought by HR Real Estate Investment Trust for $211 million.