Condominiums unite

Ralph Blaine

This is a story about a few Sandy Hill condominium owners who recently joined forces with Lowertown condominium owners to form an association called the Downtown Ottawa Condominium Alliance, or DOCA.

They came together in order to more effectively lobby governments at all levels about common concerns that were, in many cases, largely unique to their downtown location. The president of this association is Keith Nuthall.

Nuthall bought his condo in 2009 and has been on the condo board every year since, except for two. He and his wife enjoy living in Sandy Hill, but the opening of the Supervised Injection Site (SIS) in 2018 and then the Respect Rx pharmacy posed new challenges to the condo board. For one thing, their condo and others nearby had to join the ranks of the local library, bank, grocery store, market, shopping mall, Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, and the Respect Rx pharmacy and hire security guards at significant expense.

None of these businesses would have shouldered the expense of such security measures (these expenses go beyond just the guards themselves, as anybody who has gone through the turnstiles at Loblaws can attest) unless there had been a significant increase in disturbances and crime (shoplifting, disorderly behaviour; not to mention smashed windows and doors, public drug injection, and drug sales).

The initial sparks that led to the organization of DOCA were the problems that ensued from the opening of the SIS on Nelson St. and the Respect Rx pharmacy on Rideau St. The expectation was that the residents of the downtown condos would amplify their concerns by joining forces. This they have done.

After three formal meetings DOCA now has 10 downtown condominiums in its ranks and Malik Tarun (who has had experience with a similar association of local condos in Toronto) has been elected vice-president. The new association, backed by the hundreds of people who live in the 10 condos, is now set to lobby all levels of government.

Nuthall reports that our local councillor, Stéphanie Plante, has met with them and has been very cooperative. DOCA also has plans to contact the provincial government about the future of the local SIS. Nuthall also said that Mona Fortier, the MP for our riding, has been asked to meet with condo representatives to discuss the operation of the Respect Rx pharmacy since safe drug supply is a federal program. To date there has been no response from this quarter.

Both Nuthall and Tarun see a promising future for DOCA beyond the concerns that first brought them together. They also anticipate benefitting from greater bargaining power in dealing with service providers in the maintenance and improvement of their buildings. It is easy to imagine that it would be quite a boon for a window washing company, for example, if it could nail down a contract with 10 large condominium buildings all within a few blocks’ radius. By the same token DOCA would be in a better bargaining position.

Tarun also pointed out that many of the condos in the downtown area were constructed by the same developer, Claridge Homes. These buildings would have been built with similar techniques and building materials, making maintenance for this bundle of condos less complex than a collection of more far-flung buildings built by a variety of developers and therefore more likely to attract bids from a large number of service providers.

Finally, as Tarun also pointed out, soliciting bids for the maintenance of this many buildings will tend to attract larger service providers who have a greater variety of people with a wider range of skills and a big stable of equipment, therefore lessening the need for sub-contracting. Also, once a company wins a contract with such a large group of condos it would be loathe to lose it, helping the condos involved to ensure some continuity in their service providers.

Nuthall also pointed out that DOCA would provide a platform for all member condos to compare notes on dealing with issues such as HVAC, plumbing and structural issues. Sounds like a great idea. I won’t be surprised if clusters of condos begin to band together across Ottawa and beyond.