Colonnade BridgePort chief executive Hugh Gorman says the developments — one near the Blair LRT station in the city’s east end and the other at the former Granite Curling Club property on Scott Street — will be built in phases.
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.
An Ottawa real estate developer expects to kick off two multi-highrise projects next year that could add more than 2,000 units to the city’s rental housing stock.
Colonnade BridgePort chief executive Hugh Gorman says the developments — one near the Blair LRT station in the city’s east end and the other at the former Granite Curling Club property on Scott Street — will be built in phases.
Pending necessary approvals, shovels could be in the ground as early as the first quarter of 2027, Gorman told OBJ on Thursday.
“We’re kind of going into nodes where there hasn't been a lot of new development,” he said. “We’re obviously very bullish on Ottawa and its growth, despite the fact the (housing) market is a little bit soft right now. Long-term, we think there’s going to be continued demand, and we don’t think supply is going to keep up with that demand.”
Colonnade BridgePort recently filed an application with the city to subdivide a four-acre site at 2000 City Park Dr. near Blair Station into eight blocks that would ultimately be home to five residential highrises ranging from 12 to 30 storeys, a park and a multi-use pathway.
When fully built out, the development is slated to include more than 1,200 residential units. Gorman said the first highrise will likely be 16 to 18 storeys with about 200 rental apartments.
“We anticipate the bulk of (the remaining development) is going to be rental,” he added. “It’s obviously dependent upon market conditions. We may consider alternative uses like condos if the market improves, but right now, there’s no market for condos in Ottawa.”
Colonnade BridgePort also expects to break ground next year on the first building in what is projected to be a three-tower development with nearly 1,000 rental units at 2026 Scott St., the former site of the Granite Curling Club.
The firm is partnering with an undisclosed investor on the project, which Gorman said could take up to 10 years to complete. The first building is expected to be a 300-unit tower in the 28- to 30-storey range, while the second highrise could be as tall as 36 storeys and the third will likely be somewhere between 16 and 20 storeys, he explained.
Just west of Blair Road, Colonnade BridgePort’s long-term plan to redevelop a five-acre site at 25 Pickering Pl., near the main Via Rail terminal and the Tremblay LRT station, is taking shape.
The company is partnering with Toronto-based investment firm Fiera Real Estate to build up to 1,200 residential units on the former industrial land.
Gorman said work on the first two buildings — 14- and 28-storey highrises that will feature 483 rental apartments, underground parking and ground-floor commercial space — has begun, with occupancy targeted for 2029.
The firms are also looking at putting a hotel and a seniors’ residence on the property, as well as “a couple of alternative uses that we can’t disclose at this point,” Gorman added.
“The idea is that it will be a mixed-use community,” he said. “We’ve kicked it off with the first two towers and we’re starting to evaluate the next phase as we speak.”
Two builds nearing completion
Meanwhile, the firm is close to wrapping up two other multi-residential construction projects inside the Greenbelt — a 12-storey, 127-unit boutique rental apartment complex near the YMCA on Argyle Avenue, and a 22-storey, 227-suite highrise at 1950 Scott St.
The Scott Street building, a collaboration with Claridge, will be topped off next week. Construction on the Argyle Street project is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Gorman said Colonnade BridgePort is taking a new approach with the Centretown development, which features “higher-end, larger units” with more two-bedroom-plus-den and three-bedroom suites than typically found in multi-residential complexes.
“We’re testing the market on that model and will be very interested to see how the lease-up progresses,” he said.
With an estimated 10 years’ worth of residential development in its pipeline, Colonnade BridgePort is in no hurry to launch any more big projects, Gorman added.
“We’re not targeting a lot of new sites for acquisition,” he said. “We picked those sites very strategically in established communities along transit inside the Greenbelt. That’s been our strategy from day one. We feel like we’ve got lots in the pipe right now to get completed before we start to think about what’s next.”
With housing affordability being a major focus for developers, politicians and city planners over the past few years, the veteran real estate executive said Ottawa is making strides in its bid to spur more new construction.
Measures such as cutting development charges, allowing more units to be built on residential lots and reducing fees that help support public amenities such as parks will make new builds more economically viable, Gorman explained.
But developers are still bogged down in too much red tape, he added.
Gorman said Colonnade BridgePort, which teamed up with an institutional investor to buy the property on City Park Drive in 2023, has been mired in the city’s approval process for nearly two years and the project has yet to get council’s go-ahead.
“We’ve been sitting on dormant land, paying property taxes, spending money on design and things like that, and legal (costs) to get approvals,” he explained. “Approvals are still taking too long. The city’s got to figure out how to implement policy much more efficiently.
“We’ve got a fair amount of work still to do there. It’s just that it doesn't seem to be the priority right now. The focus was on getting the policy right. Now that we’ve got the policy right, we need to shift the focus to implementation and faster execution on the approvals side.”
