City hall is starting to look for builders to re-develop its campus at 300 Dufferin Ave., loading it with more office space, housing, and parking.
Published Jun 02, 2025 • 2 minute read
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London’s city hall campus is shown in downtown London on Monday, June 2, 2025. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)
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London city hall is looking for builders to re-develop its civic campus at 300 Dufferin Ave., aiming to add more office space, housing and parking.
A request for pre-qualification – which screens a potential bidder’s qualifications before they’re invited to bid – calls for a renovation of the existing city hall building, including at least 28,000 square metres (300,000 square feet) of office space on top of the existing 16,000 square metres. The plan also includes additional public parking and new housing.
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“The redevelopment of the city hall campus represents a generational opportunity to reimagine the most prominent civic building in London,” the city document reads. “A legacy property located across from Victoria Park provides an attractive amenity for employees, community members, and visitors to the city.”
The campus includes the 12-storey city hall building, the home of city council and staff since 1971, Centennial Hall, and Reg Cooper Square.
Centennial Hall is north of Reg Cooper Square. (Free Press photo)
The Centennial House apartment building, just northeast of city hall, is excluded from the project. Though, the city hall document says any development should consider the long-term plans for the building.
The document outlining the goals of the master accommodation plan, started back in 2015, acknowledges Reg Cooper Square as under-utilized but “provides ample space and location attributes that can be integrated into future development.”
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City hall is currently at full capacity and leases additional office space in 12 other buildings. The goal is to bring all staff into one building, with space to grow as the city expands.
“Consolidating the office space into a renewed city hall campus improves the public service, and it reduces those kind of long-term costs . . . it’s more accessible and it’s that centralized hub,” said downtown councillor David Ferreira.
While Ferreira agrees Reg Cooper Square is not used frequently, he hearkens back to when it first opened and it hosted many gatherings and was a prominent public space. He’d like to see uses like that maintained.
Ward 13 Councillor David Ferreira. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)
On top of more office space, the city also wants to include both market-rate and affordable housing on site, and a publicly owned parking lot with short-term and reserve spaces to address a future downtown parking shortage.
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Mike Wallace, executive director of the London Development Institute, said the timing is good since many developers will have the experience of retrofitting office space in recent years.
Factoring in offices, homes, and more parking will mean the city will need to make the most of the site, including the 30-storey height limit allowed under the Victoria Park secondary plan.
“You’ll need that kind of intensification in terms of height,” he said. “In our view, that quadrant is an opportunity, for sure.”
Wallace added that building on Reg Cooper Square may require retrofitting or rebuilding the existing private parking garage to support new construction.
The pre-qualification process runs until July 18. City council already has earmarked $125 million for the new city hall that was approved during the 2020-23 multi-year budget.
London’s city hall campus is shown in downtown London on Monday, June 2, 2025. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press) 
Centennial Hall is north of Reg Cooper Square. (Free Press photo)
Ward 13 Councillor David Ferreira. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)
