A proposal to build two “landmark” highrises in Centretown has been approved by the city’s planning and housing committee.
Taggart Realty plans to build two mixed-use towers of 27 and 25 storeys at 267 O’Connor St. between Gilmour and MacLaren streets. In total, the development would include 513 rental apartment units.
The two buildings would also include about 4,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial and retail space.
The site, which covers nearly an acre, is currently occupied by a six-storey office building and a surface parking lot, which would be demolished to make way for the new project.
City staff describe the surrounding neighbourhood as “walkable” and “well-served by transit,” with a mix of low and mid-rise residential, commercial and retail properties.
Nearby corridors, including Bank Street and Somerset Street, are occupied by a variety of restaurants, retail stores, coffee shops and other kinds of businesses and office buildings. The property is a short walk from a Your Independent grocery store, Staples and Dollarama.
The development would include significant park space, covering about 40 per cent of the site.
“The design intent is to propose a landmark building that sensitively fits within the local Centretown context,” planning documents submitted with the application say.
Also included in the proposal is an underground parking garage with 319 parking spaces and 514 bicycle spots.
Current zoning rules limit buildings to nine storeys at the property. Under the city’s Central and East Downtown Core Secondary Plan, buildings on streets such as O’Connor and Metcalfe can exceed established height limits if they qualify as “true civic or national landmarks.”
The “landmark” building policy states that developments must make “significant and exceptional contributions to the public realm” through elements such as “iconic architecture” and include publicly accessible space consisting of at least 40 per cent of the subject area’s property.
Critics of Taggart’s proposal, including the Centretown Community Association, felt the development didn’t fit all of those criteria. Ultimately, however, councillors agreed with city staff’s assessment that the proposal did qualify as a “landmark” building.
Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster was sympathetic to the public’s concerns but supported the decision.
“I agree that the landmark policy is really nebulous. It’s very, very subjective. It’s saying that it needs to be iconic architecture. Well, what is iconic architecture?” she said during the committee’s meeting on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be the biggest thing in the nearby area, and that’s a lot of change for the community. And Centretown is already getting a ton of density everywhere else, so I understand the conflicted feelings about this development.”
The committee also approved a heritage permit for the property. City staff said the permit is required because the site is located within the Centretown Heritage Conservation District. The committee agreed with staff that the existing building has no heritage value.
The base of the building will also be clad in red brick reminiscent of other nearby buildings in the Centretown neighbourhood to help it blend with the area’s historic buildings.
The proposal is a downsized and redesigned version of the builder’s original proposal for the site that was submitted in late 2020.
That plan called for 28- and 30-storey highrises containing a total of 541 rental apartments, 339 underground parking spots and a small amount of retail space.
However, city officials and then-councillor Catherine McKenney expressed concerns about the scale of the proposed development.
Taggart Realty Management president Jeff Parkes told OBJ last year the firm “consulted at all stages with both the councillor’s office and with community organizations” as it revised its proposal, adding it incorporated many of the community’s concerns into the new design.
