Ottawa's iconic downtown core just got a major boost: a company tied to prominent local developer Claridge Homes has made an offer to purchase the former Hudson's Bay flagship store at 73, 85, and 87 Rideau Street, setting the stage for a significant redevelopment of one of the city's most recognizable — and most conspicuously empty — properties.
The purchase agreement, signed March 19, 2026, names 2808771 Ontario Limited, with Neil Malhotra of Claridge Homes signing on behalf of the buyer. The deal has an outside completion date of May 30, 2026, with extension options available. While the purchase price has been redacted from the publicly available agreement, the sheer scale of the building makes this one of the most significant downtown real estate moves in recent memory.
A Building Too Big to Ignore
The former Bay store spans more than 330,000 square feet across five storeys — an enormous footprint in the heart of the capital. Since Hudson's Bay Company shuttered its flagship Ottawa location as part of sweeping national closures in early 2025, the building has sat vacant at one of the city's busiest intersections, steps from the Rideau Centre and the Rideau LRT station.
For anyone who's walked past lately, you know the vibe: a hulking, shuttered presence that's hard to miss. Getting it back into productive use has been a priority for the city and downtown advocates ever since the lights went out.
Mixed-Use Vision
According to reports, Claridge's vision for the space involves a mixed-use redevelopment — ground-floor retail to maintain street-level activation, with residential units above. That model has become the go-to approach for reimagining large-format retail footprints in Canadian downtowns, and it's a formula Claridge knows well. The Ottawa-based developer has built hundreds of residential units across the city, from Little Italy to Centretown and beyond.
A residential component on Rideau Street would also plug directly into the city's push to bring more people — and more life — into the downtown core, especially after the pandemic years hit the neighbourhood hard.
Downtown Ottawa Needs the Win
The offer couldn't come at a better time for a downtown still finding its footing. Between the LRT disruptions, lingering remote work patterns keeping office towers quieter than pre-pandemic days, and a string of retail closures along Rideau and Sparks streets, city boosters have been hungry for a headline that points in the right direction.
A Claridge-led project at this address would be a genuine anchor moment. The developer has a track record of seeing Ottawa projects through — and a mixed-use building that brings residents to Rideau Street would generate foot traffic for the surviving shops and restaurants nearby.
The deal still needs to close, and no detailed plans have been filed publicly yet. But the agreement on the table is the clearest signal yet that the old Bay building's long vacancy may finally be coming to an end.
Source: CTV News Ottawa, OBJ, Retail Insider. Reporting based on publicly available purchase agreement and media coverage from April 30, 2026.
