World Exchange Plaza facts for kids
The World Exchange Plaza is an office and retail complex in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It covers an entire city block between Metcalfe and O'Connor, south of Queen, north of Albert Street.
The first phase of the project was completed in 1991. The twenty-story building was unusual in Ottawa for its visual flair. The eastern side was marked by a large plaza modeled after the Roman Colosseum. The building opened in the middle of a deep recession and initially had trouble being filled. The 1990s boom solved this and work began on a second tower, which was completed in 2001. This second tower greatly increased the available office space.
Description
The two towers hold offices for a variety of companies, including Deloitte, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), CTV, Microsoft, Accenture, Norton Rose Fulbright, RBC Dominion Securities, TD Canada Trust, CPAC and Beer Canada. Atop of one tower is the TD logo and atop the other is the BLG logo.
The World Exchange Plaza shopping mall is located in the base of the structure. It is home to a number of stores. It also featured a movie theatre, the only cinema complex in the downtown core. This theatre closed on December 29, 2013 when Landmark Cinemas was unable to renew the lease. The theatre was also run by Cineplex Odeon from its opening in 1991 until September 30, 2005 when the theatre was bought by Empire Theatres. Empire Theatres operated the theatre from September 30, 2005 until October 29, 2013. Empty since 2013, the developer has applied to remodel the space into usable office space. On Jan 24, 2017 it was announced that Klipfolio Dashboard would become the first major tenant of this newly renovated space.
The mall has life-size models of narwhals and belugas that hang from the ceiling.
The complex is managed by QuadReal on behalf of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC).
