OTTAWA — The federal government’s Public Works Department has completed its purchase of Nortel Networks Corp.’s Ottawa campus for $208 million and confirmed plans to relocate a significant portion of Department of National Defence operations there.

DND’s offices are currently spread throughout the Ottawa region in 48 locations. The department has been planning to consolidate them into a few key locations for years.

Public Works announced Friday that DND employees will move to the former Nortel facility in phases over the next five to seven years.

The property has 12 buildings with about 207,000 square metres (2.2 million square feet) of space.

Nortel, once a Canadian success story known worldwide for its technological innovation, has either ended or sold off most of its operations since going into bankruptcy protection in January 2009.

Ottawa Citizen