Businesses in one of the city’s largest makerspaces are scrambling to find new homes after being told last week they had just days to vacate the premises.
Subtenants in Makerspace North, a community hub and startup incubator in the upper bays of the City Centre industrial complex just west of downtown, received notices from the building’s landlord last Thursday informing them they had to move out of the 19,000-square-foot facility by Dec. 9.
“We had no inkling this was coming,” said Bettina Vollmerhausen, the co-founder and executive director of the Ottawa Tool Library, which has rented 1,300 square feet in Makerspace North for five years and is one of more than two dozen subtenants facing eviction.
According to the notice to vacate, Makerspace North is in “significant rental arrears” at the property it has occupied for about six years.
Vollermerhausen said…