East Ottawa Star
Published: Friday, February 20, 2009 

Developing the Tenth Line Canadian Tire

Last week I asked what matters most to you and the responses varied. But in a few e-mail and weekend chats with the neighbours, many folks seem to have their eyes on summer already and the challenge of what their kids will do to “hang out.” As Lucille Arnold hinted in her e-mail, we must collectively do better and give teenagers more choices than the mall or the Tim Horton’s parking lot.

Her idea focused on the abandoned Canadian Tire store on Tenth Line with a vision of an indoor skateboard park, rock climbing wall, paintball or laser tag, and foosball, pool or ping pong tables. Indeed, depending on the hours of operation, it could be a family hub at some hours and teen-oriented venue during others.

But the opportunity is much larger and it got me thinking, and now writing, that this shell of a building could serve so many useful purposes.

To start, there is the promised “health hub” which is the subject of an ongoing $100,000 provincial study. Surely this building is more than large enough to accommodate an MRI unit, lab and x-ray setup, day surgery facility, multiple doctors and allied health services offices, pharmacy, and other services envisioned for our mini-hospital a few years down the road. Parking is ample and the location is central and easily accessible.

Alternately, this venue could be turned into a local dining mecca. As I have long complained, we can only eat so many meals at Broadway, Jonny Canuck’s, Boston Pizza et al. God Bless standard roadhouse fare but wouldn’t it be great to find real Italian, Cuban, Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine all in one place? Again, location and parking are not issues.

Or the store, if a developer had commercial tenant interest, could be converted into a combination office/retail environment. And if we really want to think outside the big box, pun intended, the Centrum concept could be adapted to this site and make it a destination for walking, dining and specialty shopping although some creative architecture and design would be needed given the limited footprint and road boundaries.

Of course many of these ideas are easy for me to spout off as I don’t live on Gardenway or other adjacent properties and wise planning would dictate that the property owner potentially canvasses the surrounding neighbourhoods as to what they might want to see on the old Canadian Tire site and what they would oppose.

Then there is the other option of a Ray Friel satellite site and yes, I’m really thinking out loud here. A few extra soccer fields, baseball diamond or ice pads are more than needed in our community, but this then becomes a function of municipal dollars, priorities and our ability to leverage federal and provincial infrastructure money.

What else could we do with this site? I would welcome your opinion and even flip you a few Canadian Tire dollars for your troubles. 

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Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca.