Happy Goat Coffee given first right of refusal for shops at future LRT stations
Ottawa city council has approved giving Happy Goat Coffee the first right of refusal for setting up at five future LRT stations when Stage 2 launches.
The Ottawa-based coffee chain has a location at the Blair LRT station. It won a contract prior to the launch of Stage 1 of LRT to also have kiosks at Tunney's Pasture, Rideau, and Hurdman stations. To date, only the Rideau Station shop ever opened, but it has since closed because it was financially unviable.
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
- Sign up now for our nightly CTV News Ottawa newsletter
City staff said in a report prepared for the finance and corporate services committee and council that Happy Goat has never reached its sales targets.
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed ridership patterns across the city's transit network, and public confidence in the LRT has been shaken by numerous incidents and failures on the line in the short time it's been operational. That includes a stench passengers long complained about at Rideau Station.
Happy Goat Coffee owner Henry Assad told CTV News Ottawa in September he's cautiously optimistic about the LRT.
"We see the evidence at Blair Station. It has been progressively getting better and we're breaking even at Blair," he said.
Now, the city is giving Happy Goat another kick at the can with Stage 2.
Council voted to waive the section of the city's leasing policy that requires public notice of leasable city space.
"The intent of this proposal would provide additional investor interest and growth opportunities for Happy Goat while maintaining customer service standards. This first right of refusal would be subject to the Leasing Policy requirements, would not be transferable and would require Happy Goat to negotiate in good faith a new separate lease agreement for these five stations," the report said.
It passed unanimously at council on Wednesday.
The future commercial spaces would be at Trim and Place d‘Orléans stations in the east, and Alqonquin, Bayshore, and Lincoln Fields stations in the west.
"We will evaluate each one of them separately and we will make that decision when the time comes," Assad told CTV News Ottawa last month.
The current timeline for the opening of the eastern extension is 2025. The western extension has been delayed until 2026.
Happy Goat currently has 14 locations across Ottawa.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.