Find the right spot for your business with our Locate Ottawa mapping tool

This feature story is part of the City of Ottawa Service Reviews: an initiative aimed at ensuring our services are meeting your needs. Visit ottawa.ca/YourIdeas today.   If you already live and work in Ottawa, then you already know the benefits of operating your business here. The local talent pool, the quality of life, and the diverse economy make up only part of the list. If you want a longer list, visit Why bring your business to Ottawa? or Why Ottawa. Once you know you want to set up shop in Canada’s capital, then you need to decide where to go and what’s available. That’s where the City’s Locate Ottawa tool can help out. Locate Ottawa is an online tool to help entrepreneurs, businesses, property owners and real estate professionals access information about commercial properties across the city. But it’s more than just a real estate listing. It is an interactive map that simplifies finding your optimal business location by providing a wide range of information about available locations all around our city, such as:

• Demographics
• Consumer spending habits
• Labour statistics
• Business and sector locations

How is this useful? Let’s say you want to open a restaurant. You know it’s important to have the ideal location. With Locate Ottawa, you can pin a potential location on the map and find out how close you are to:

• Potential customers
• Competitors
• Suppliers
• Potential employees

By the way, if you are opening a restaurant, take advantage of our Business Ambassador Program, which can help you navigate the required licenses and permits you will need. In short, Locate Ottawa enables business owners and site selectors to learn about what Canada’s capital can offer and lay the groundwork to successfully grow a business here. Of course, the benefits of Locate Ottawa work both ways. Property owners and commercial real estate professionals can list and promote their own sale and lease opportunities. To help attract clients, you can provide detailed information about your property and space, including site attributes, local demographics, pictures, site/floor plans and proximity to other businesses. For entrepreneurs, Locate Ottawa reduces research time from weeks to minutes. With this accurate and timely information for site selectors, our city maintains a competitive position in attracting and retaining businesses and business investment. Your city, your ideas!  Providing support for current and potential businesses is one example of how we work with our partners to attract customers and investors to create prosperity for our economy. Do you have ideas related to this or other City services? Share your ideas at engage.ottawa.ca.