The multi-million dollar venture will bring a History club to Ottawa in partnership with Drake. Here’s what to expect.
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The spacious new nightclub coming to the ByWard Market in 2026 will be called History, a sister venue to the concert hall of the same name in Toronto, Live Nation announced at a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.
What’s more, Canadian rap superstar Drake, who’s a partner in the Toronto venue, has extended his investment to the Ottawa location, too, said Erik Hoffman, the Ottawa-born, Toronto-based president of Live Nation Canada.
The club not only fills a long-identified gap in the Ottawa music scene but also represents a personal milestone for Hoffman, who was one of the driving forces behind the old Capital Music Hall on Rideau Street in the early 2000s. That 1,000-capacity club was shuttered in 2006 to make way for highrise condos.
“It’s obviously very personal for me to have the second version of History be in Ottawa,” Hoffman said in an interview. “The city has been starved for a venue of this size. It’s a great bridge between the classic sort of cutting-your-teeth smaller club and the hockey arena or large theatre.”
The new venture, a multi-million dollar project for Live Nation, takes over the retail space at 47–57 Rideau St. that was formerly occupied by a Chapters bookstore. Now owned by the National Capital Commission, the space was leased to Live Nation Canada last year. Renovations are underway.
Like Toronto’s History, the new club will be designed to hold a general-admission audience on the ground floor, and seating on the upper level. Capacity in Ottawa will be 2,000, about 400 fewer than the Toronto club. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art sound and lighting gear.
Evening Update
Hoffman said the two-level model has been a big success in Toronto. The original History first opened in 2021 but due to off-and-on public-health restrictions, didn’t really get going until the spring of 2022.
“It’s been as well received as it possibly could have been,” Hoffman said. “We already had lofty expectations for it and we knew it was going to be a big deal, but then it sort of exceeded all of those things. There was always a discussion about doing more of them.”
One key to the Toronto club’s popularity is the cross-generational appeal. Fans have the option to dive into the thick of the crowd in front of the stage, or watch the show from a seat on the upper level.
“It’s cool because it serves a lot of different audience types. That’s the whole thing,” Hoffman said. “The idea is that it feels raw enough that you can do a punk rock show, but you can also do any number of configurations, like comedy shows or special events or award shows. We would look to do all of those same things in Ottawa.”
The nation’s capital is a perfect spot for a club of this size, Hoffman noted, and the ByWard Market makes an ideal central location, despite the recent social unrest in the area.
“Ottawa has the advantage of being geographically situated between Montreal and Toronto. It just makes it that much easier to add it into the circuit,” Hoffman said.
The music exec, who used to live and work in the ByWard Market in the early years of his career, also believes the Market district can be “amazing” again.
“I know what it’s capable of being and I believe it could be that again,” he said. “It’s obviously got some cleanup and some business revitalization to do but I think this (club) will be on the forefront of businesses leading the way. I see this as a good thing.”
The promoter aims to hold at least 200 shows a year at History Ottawa, a level of activity that is expected to create hundreds of jobs for bar staff, security personnel, techs and more.
As for the likelihood of Drake showing up to check out his Ottawa investment, it’s not out of the question.
“He shows up a lot to see artists in Toronto, like way more than I ever thought,” Hoffman said. “Obviously by nature of where he lives, I don’t think you would expect to see Drake quite as often but who knows? Never say never.”
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