Whatever happened to military precision?



By the end of last month, about 3,400 employees from the Department of National Defence were supposed to have decamped from their downtown offices and moved to part of the former Nortel campus in the city’s west end, the site of DND’s new headquarters.



Instead, fewer than 1,000, all part of the military’s human resources group, have so far been relocated.



Now nine years in development, the $800-million-plus project is finally putting boots on the ground. Eventually, DND will consolidate 40 facilities across the national capital region into a handful, with more than half of its 16,000 local staff stationed in the new headquarters.



The initial target for completing the first of three phases destined for the former Nortel campus — the 3,400 — was March 31 of 2016.

However, the department delayed things one year to replace defective windows and to bring buildings up to code to withstand potential seismic events.



The reason for the latest delay? DND may have simply underestimated the complexity of the move — not to mention the associated politics. One insider explained that it’s sometimes difficult to convince groups within the department to move when it suits the project leaders. Another factor is that it’s taking longer than expected to fit up the buildings.



For the moment, only one of the former Nortel labs — known now as Building 8 — is fully occupied, with 750 defence employees. Other elements of DND’s human resources unit are relocating from downtown to Building 9, which is to be filled by mid-June. That’s another 750 or so.



Combined, Buildings 8 and 9 represent less than half of the project’s first phase. But don’t look for the military to move quickly after that.



“We plan to take a pause during the summer,” said one DND official, “in order to minimize the disruption.” The new deadline to finish the first phase? December.



This will naturally squeeze the project’s overall timelines.



Before the latest delay in Phase I, DND had been planning to add another 3,900 (Phase 2) by March 31, 2018, and 1900 (Phase 3) by March 31, 2019.



Does it matter if all these phases are pushed further out? Almost certainly, yes. Delays will force DND to extend some of its downtown leases while its employees await their new office space.



When the first phase was pushed back one year, the department was forced to shell out millions of dollars in unanticipated lease costs.



The delay in DND fully occupying the former Nortel site has also been a disappointment for realtors and retailers, who had been expecting a bit of a bump in sales as the military shifted west.

It’s not just that there are fewer than expected employees at the new headquarters. The number of moves being orchestrated by the department across the system is also down “significantly” this year according to Rick Eisert, present of the Ottawa Real Estate Board.



“There is going to be a bit of a bump in the west end, but it will be the result of people moving into the capital and there are fewer such moves this year,” he said. “DND people already living here probably won’t sell their homes.”



House prices in the west end certainly haven’t been increasing in a robust fashion. March data from the Ottawa Real Estate Board suggests single-family homes appreciated a little more than four per cent year over year in nearby Kanata, Barrhaven and Bells Corners — slightly less than for the city as a whole.



Nevertheless, price gains in Stittsville were up nearly eight per cent. Chris Scott, a sales representative with Keller Williams VIP Realty, explained “Stittsville is the community of choice for Canadian Forces members,” adding that increased sales this year have cut inventories of available houses.



Paul Rushforth, owner of the real-estate firm that bears his name, agrees housing markets in Stittsville — and to a certain extent Barrhaven — are showing increased momentum. “It’s difficult to find properties because everything is selling so quickly.” Precisely how much of this is related to the DND headquarters project is unclear.



However, it does suggest that if military planners finally get their headquarters plans on track, the west end really will feel the jolt of the military’s occupation.



jbagnall@postmedia.com



Twitter.com/JamesBagnall1