Kelvin Holmes, managing director of Colliers International real estate, said yesterday the federal government will take 66,000 square feet in August with a move expected late this year.
He said the 10-year lease at 340 Leggett Dr. building was reached last week. The Department of Public Works and Government Services declined comment.
Mr. Holmes said, "This is a fantastic move to spread government employment across the region. It should have a good settling effect on a volatile market in Kanata."
There are about one million square feet of vacant space in Kanata, or about 20 per cent of the market, created by layoffs by a number of technology companies.
Brookstreet Research Park, the real estate operation of technology magnate Terence Matthews, owns the Mitel building. The one-storey structure opened in 1979 and has 159,000 square feet of space.
Mitel has 710 employees in Ottawa, down 140 in the last year following rounds of cuts.
The Mitel deal flows from a request for proposals last year for about 70,000 square feet of Kanata space as the government dipped its toes in the western suburban market for the first time.
It is separate from a government request for information involving up to 3.8 million square feet issued last month.
That move involves space in the downtown core, remote suburbs and along the Transitway that the government might take by 2011.
The request closes at the end of January and could be followed by formal proposal requests but quick decisions are not expected.
Nortel is trying to lease one of the 10 labs at its 2.3-million-square foot Carling Avenue campus, another is empty and the insolvent company is desperately trying to raise cash.
However, there is a new complication.
Nortel Canada put a mortgage on the Carling campus last week in order to secure $200 million in cash from Nortel U.S. operations.
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