ABOUT BAYVIEW YARDS

Bayview Yards creates a one-stop business acceleration shop, and equips our most promising entrepreneurs and technology firms with the technical, business and market capabilities they require to take on the world!  It serves as a springboard for these ventures from start-up to scale-up, helping them to reduce risk, accelerate growth, and spur commercial success and economic development in our community.

Come step inside our doors and...

Discover the industry-calibre tools and equipment, expertise, and connections that will help you chart a path from idea to global market

Chat with technology gurus, big brands and rising stars, angel investors, visionaries and artists…and immerse yourself in possibility

Bring us your biggest entrepreneurial challenge and let us help you tackle it head-on and blow past key hurdles

Design, build and demonstrate your technology together with the resident experts in our Digital Media Lab and Maker Space

Hatch new ideas as you link with brilliant minds

Glow with pride as you marvel at the achievements of our innovators, entrepreneurs and community – and the new jobs, companies and investment that spring from them

What do we do?

Bayview Yards brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors and community members to:

  • Harness creativity and imagination
  • Explore, experiment and invent
  • Learn, exchange and collaborate
  • Develop, validate and translate new ideas into technologies, products and services
  • Launch and grow successful technology companies of the future

It puts these capabilities within the financial reach of companies as they are taking flight and throughout development, and enables entrepreneurs to:

  • Explore, experiment, and invent
  • Learn, challenge, and collaborate
  • Develop, prototype and validate new technologies, products and services
  • Launch and grow successful companies

It is the ultimate one-stop shop and ‘mash-up’ of technical, business and market capabilities, resources and expertise that helps technology entrepreneurs and companies launch, grow and thrive.   Leveraging a host of partners, this powerful intersection brings together all the ingredients for commercial success under one roof.

These include:

  • Incubation, collaboration and meeting space
  • Market information
  • Business acceleration and investment programs
  • Tools and technologies for the design, manufacture, test and commercialization of new products
  • Linkages to customers, investors and markets around the world
  • Training and events
  • Functional business experts in IP, sales, marketing, finance, Human Resources, and Public Relations

And connect internationally to:

  • Customers
  • Investors
  • R&D Business Partners
  • Distributors
  • Suppliers
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Who do we serve?

Governed by seasoned executives, and led by a lean management team, Bayview Yards serves:

  • A broad mix of innovators, entrepreneurs and companies in all stages of development that require access to technical, business and investment programs, capabilities, services and support to launch, grow and thrive
  • Partners, investors and other stakeholders from the private, public, post-secondary, investment and non-profit sectors with innovation, business and economic development mandates that aim to increase their impact on entrepreneurs, firms and the local economy; and
  • Community members seeking opportunities to learn, engage and benefit from Ottawa’s innovation capabilities and ecosystem, and participate in events, workshops and other activities

Where we are

Bayview Yards is located about 25 minutes from Kanata’s high tech community; 10 minutes from Ottawa’s downtown core and the seat of federal government; and 20 minutes from the Ottawa International Airport.
This location will provide one of the highest levels of transit access in the City upon completion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) system that is currently under construction.  It is located at the nexus of the city’s O-Train line and a future Light Rail Transit station, facilitating easy access for many different stakeholders.
The development of Bayview Yards also catalyzes urban renewal in this part of the city, and attracts a host of new businesses, restaurants and amenities to this region.
Its proximity to the Ottawa River and National Capital Commission park space and bikeway also make it a scenic and outdoor recreation friendly site, enabling the innovation centre to showcase some of Ottawa’s greatest attributes to visiting investors, companies and customers.

History

Constructed from 1941 to 1947 for the City of Ottawa, City Works Building #4 was established as part of a broader building complex on Bayview Road.   During this era, this municipal works building housed key operational and storage capabilities for the City, including machinery storage and repair shops, stables, offices and stock rooms. Although City Works Yards featured many buildings during this period, most of these facilities have been demolished.
The building borders three distinct historic Ottawa communities: LeBreton Flats, Mechanicsville, and Hintonburg.   It is located at the northern edge of Mechanicsville, a neighbourhood in the Kitchissippi Ward of Ottawa.  The City initiated development of the facility in the late 19th Century as industrial activity from LeBreton Flats expanded westward. The City Works Yard is built on landfill from the former Nepean Bay.  Nepean Bay once extended as far south as Scott Street, but was filled in gradually by the National Capital Commission (NCC) from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Heritage Designation
On March 26, 2015 a motion was carried during the Built Heritage Sub-Committee Meeting of the City of Ottawa recommending that 7 Bayview Yards be designated as a heritage building.

Architecture

City Works Building #4 is a reinforced concrete construction building with brick panels that embodies modern industrial style architecture. Popular in Canada from the 1940s to the 1970s, this architecture is characterized by modular square or rectangular forms, plain unadorned surfaces, and large windows that sit within reinforced concrete or a steel frame. The former City Works Building exemplifies this style with masonry panels, flat roof and large windows.
This building is comprised of a one storey central pavilion with flanking two storey wings. The east wing of the facility is clad in red brick with large multi-pane, single glazed windows in steel frames. The east elevation of the building is defined by four large service bays with hinged wooden tongue and groove doors.  The south and east elevations feature loading docks adorned with wooden garage doors that feature rows of windows.  The south elevation also dons the landmark name ‘City of Ottawa Workshops’ on the concrete band that runs along the top of the building.

Leed Gold Certification

The innovation centre is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. This independent, rating system promotes high performance building standards including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality

This facility features:

  • An environmentally sensitive and sound design that offers the latest in sustainable technology
  • A ‘Hidden Harvest’ orchard garden that will adorn the courtyard of the Innovation Centre
  • Links with city bicycle paths, helping visitors to capitalize on the Innovation Centre’s proximity to the Ottawa River and National Capital Commission park space