Ottawa’s 100-year-old Mercury Court building is looking to the future after undergoing extensive green retrofits which are saving water and energy, and reducing operating costs significantly.

“The building’s operating cost used to be $27 per square foot because the building was old and not energy efficient, but with the changes our operating cost has dropped down to $19.50 per square foot,” Bill Sioulas, director of real estate at Golpro Holdings, the building’s owner, told RENX.

“The typical operating cost for a building like this is $22 per square foot. We used to pay $13,000 a month on water and we dramatically reduced it down to $4,500," he continued, noting tenants are happy as the upgrades "saved them a lot of money.”

The building’s smart technology also adjusts air flows depending on how many people are in the room, earning Mercury Court a TOBY Award from the Building Owners and Managers Association. 

“The preference for many tenants is being in a green environment when they select places to lease,” Sioulas said.

The history of Mercury Court

Mercury Court, located in Ottawa’s ByWard Market district, opened on May 23, 1923 as Larocque’s Department store, but by the 1930s the Great Depression moved the owner to sell the building to Joseph Hirsch Vineberg, who’d keep the building in the family for decades.

By the 1970s, Toth Realty Corporation took ownership of Mercury Court, which then counted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police among its tenants, and hired architect Barry Padolsky to revamp and retrofit the building, even adding the rooftop dome.

More renovations followed in the 1990s, including the addition of a weathervane. 

In 2015, Golpro approached Toth to purchase Mercury Court and secured its purchase for $22 million.

It has since spent another $4 million on renovations. Today it is appraised at around $36 million, according to Sioulas, a 48-year real estate veteran.

“I saw the potential of this building, especially with the LRT opening across the street and around the corner,” Sioulas explained – Ottawa's east-west light rail transit system through the downtown opened in 2019. 

“With the historical significance of ByWard Market itself, I looked at it with (Golpro Holdings’ owner) Goldie Singh and we bought the building."

A mix of tenants old and new

Mercury Court is tenanted by Rebel.com, a website domain company, mortgage financier ICI Capital, Econo Petroleum (also owned by Singh), and the Embassy of Sweden.

Boustan, a Lebanese fast food restaurant from Quebec, and Waterloo-headquartered Meltwich both selected Mercury Court as a staging ground for future franchises, while Lone Star Texas Grill, among others, has also set up shop in the retail component of the heritage building. 

"We have a couple of vacant spots, like every other building in the market right now.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on the ByWard Market area, but Mercury Court was resilient.

Sioulas said he immediately prepared a pandemic guide for all tenants so detailed that Tripadvisor, a former Mercury Court tenant, asked for permission to use it internally.

Mercury Court has two large elevators servicing its three floors that can fit upwards of 10 people each, which made social distancing simpler than it might have otherwise been.

Golpro also enlisted Zoono, which creates long-lasting antibacterial products that kill bacteria on skin and surfaces with 99.9 per cent efficacy, to disinfect Mercury Court every three months.

“We’re still using it,” Sioulas said. “They do the Q-Tip test on elevators and door handles and things like that. I even stocked up on UV lighting, which came in from Montreal, and we cleaned out what was left in the market.”

Tripadvisor eventually decided to leave the building – downsizing from leasing 9,000 square feet to 1,500 in another building – but that was the only significant loss. Sioulas said every other tenant renewed their lease. 

Golpro owns other Ottawa heritage buildings

Golpro worked with each tenant individually to custom-design rent plans, a process Sioulas said went quite smoothly.

“We treat our tenants like we’re their real estate partner in their business and we work together,” he said. “So there’s a 99.9 per cent satisfaction rate with us being a landlord. The Swedish Embassy, which can be picky, was happy to renew.”

Golpro Holdings has carved a niche in acquiring heritage buildings in Ottawa. In addition to Mercury Court, the firm has another one at 207 Queen St. at the corner of Bank Street, as well as the 118-year-old Trafalgar building. 

It has also entered the multiresidential sector with the purchase of a 55-unit building comprised of bachelor and one-bedroom units at 305 Metcalfe St.

Golpro also has a property at Clyde Avenue and Baseline Road (along a future bus rapid transit line, and adjacent to Ottawa's busy Merivale Road commercial corridor) for which it recently received zoning approval to build 28- and 18-storey towers.