More than 500 new apartment units could be built in the burgeoning neighbourhood around the Corsa Italia LRT station in Hintonburg if a proposed multi-tower development goes through. An application recently filed with the city calls for two new highrises at Breezehill Avenue North and Laurel Street, about a block from the Corsa Italia station. […]
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More than 500 new apartment units could be built in the burgeoning neighbourhood around the Corsa Italia LRT station in Hintonburg if a proposed multi-tower development goes through.
An application recently filed with the city calls for two new highrises at Breezehill Avenue North and Laurel Street, about a block from the Corsa Italia station.
The one-and-a-half-acre property is currently home to a two-storey commercial building whose tenants include Happy Goat Coffee and Capital Self Storage, as well as a surface parking lot.
The building would be demolished to make way for the new development, which includes a 31-storey tower with 264 residential units and a 33-storey highrise with 279 residential units and about 4,500 square feet of retail space.
The proposal also features two levels of underground parking with 124 spots for vehicles and 681 spaces for bicycles as well as a public park, two other public spaces and a pair of multi-use pathways.
Current zoning rules limit buildings on the property to 18 storeys, but planning documents filed with the city on behalf of property owner Fred Unsworth argue there has been “a major paradigm shift” since the neighbourhood’s secondary plan was approved.
“Universally, it has been accepted that cities like Ottawa must prioritize and accelerate new housing construction in the coming years to adequately address unmet housing demand,” the document prepared by Fotenn Planning + Design says, adding that “more growth must be achieved via intensification” around transit hubs such as Corsa Italia.
Other developers are also pushing to build more multi-residential buildings near the O-Train stop just west of Little Italy.
For example, CLV Group plans to build three mixed-use highrises on a two-acre property at 951 Gladstone Ave. and 145 Loretta Ave. N., just on the other side of the station.
The towers, ranging from 34 to 40 storeys, would contain a total of 930 residential units.
According to the application summary for the project, the 34-storey tower would be devoted to residential units, while the other two highrises would include residential units plus a five-storey podium with more than 140,000 square feet of office space and 21,000 square feet of retail space along Gladstone Avenue.
The site is currently occupied by a four-storey artist studio, the Standard Bread Building, which is a designated heritage property and will be integrated into the new development.
The Gladstone Centre and two two-storey mixed-use buildings that also sit on the property would be demolished to make way for the project.
Meanwhile, Claridge Homes is currently building a 30-storey highrise with more than 250 rental units just north of the Corsa Italia station at the corner of Breezehill Avenue North and Somerset Street West.
