The city’s planning and housing committee has given the green light to a proposal to build six highrises with more than 1,700 residential units near the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.
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The city’s planning and housing committee has given the green light to a proposal to build six highrises with more than 1,700 residential units near the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.
Montreal-based Groupe Oradev says it plans to tear down the industrial building and attached three-storey office complex that currently occupy the site at 400 Coventry Rd. and replace them with six mixed-use towers ranging from 21 to 35 storeys.
The development would also feature a public park as well as 1,090 underground and surface parking spots and 900 parking spaces for bicycles.
The rectangular-shaped parcel of land spans nearly five acres at the southwest corner of Belfast and Coventry roads, just north of the Queensway about 850 metres west of St. Laurent Shopping Centre and 850 metres from the Tremblay LRT stop at Ottawa’s train station. It was previously owned by energy giant Enbridge Gas, which currently operates a distribution facility on the site.
Groupe Oradev is proposing to construct a total of 1,768 residential suites in a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhouse-style units. The development would be separated into northern and southern blocks divided by a proposed public road running from east to west.
The north block would feature two towers of 25 and 28 storeys connected by a podium ranging from one to six storeys, along with 13,000 square feet of commercial space fronting on Coventry Road. The area would also include a half-acre public park and outdoor amenity space.
The south block would feature four towers of 21, 31, 33 and 35 storeys connected by a podium ranging from three to six storeys.
The planning and housing committee approved amendments to the city’s Official Plan that will raise height limits from 20 to 30 storeys on the north block and from 30 to 35 storeys on the south block. The site has also been rezoned from general mixed-use to transit-oriented development to allow for taller buildings and increased setbacks.
The project is a revised version of an earlier plan the developer submitted in 2022. That proposal, which called for seven highrises ranging from 18 to 30 storeys and a total of about 1,700 residential units, was revamped in response to feedback from the surrounding community, city staff and the city’s urban design review panel.
In comments attached to a city staff report recommending the project be approved, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King, whose ward includes the proposed development, said the plan “represents a thoughtful approach to transit-oriented intensification.”
King said the builder’s willingness to scale back the development from seven towers to six “shows a commitment to finding the right balance between appropriate intensification and neighbourhood compatibility,” adding the project “exemplifies the type of smart growth we need in Ottawa” and its proximity to light rail “makes this an ideal location for the kind of density that supports sustainable urban development while reducing car dependency for future residents.”
Also Wednesday, the committee approved an application to construct an eight-storey building on the north side of Beechwood Avenue between Springfield Road and Douglas Avenue that will contain 123 dwelling units in a range of sizes from studios to two-bedroom apartments.
The proposed building would also include nearly 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space facing Beechwood Avenue.
City council will consider the planning committee’s recommendations at its next meeting on Aug. 27.
