Claridge Homes eyes revised plan to build record-breaking 50-storey tower on Carling Avenue

Nearly four years after filing a plan to build a record-shattering 60-storey tower in Little Italy, Claridge Homes has scaled down the design to a 50-storey highrise that would still be Ottawa’s tallest building if the proposal goes through. The mixed-use complex at 829 Carling Ave. would top out at 166.2 metres, or 545 feet. […]

Nearly four years after filing a plan to build a record-shattering 60-storey tower in Little Italy, Claridge Homes has scaled down the design to a 50-storey highrise that would still be Ottawa’s tallest building if the proposal goes through. The mixed-use complex at 829 Carling Ave. would top out at 166.2 metres, or 545 feet. That’s 23 metres, or about 75 feet, taller than the current record-holder, Claridge’s 143-metre-tall (469-foot) Icon condo tower at nearby 805 Carling Ave. The updated proposal calls for 503 residential units, up from 459 units in the original plan. There would also be 3,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, a slight increase from the 2,800 square feet Claridge proposed in 2021. In a move to address complaints that the first plan included too much parking, the developer has slashed the proposed number of vehicle parking spots to 196, down from 385 in the original proposal, while boosting the number of bicycle parking spaces to 267 from 230. Vehicle parking spaces would be located in a six-storey underground garage accessible from Sidney Street. According to a site plan recently filed with the city, the building designed by Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects would include 264 one-bedroom apartments, 168 two-bedroom units, 48 studio apartments and 23 three-bedroom suites.

It’s the latest iteration of what would be the biggest development project yet in an area that’s ground zero for a spate of lofty mixed-use proposals. Claridge revised the original plan after getting feedback from city staff and community members, submitting a rejigged proposal in 2023 that called for a 40-storey tower with 396 apartments and 196 parking spaces at the 0.4-acre site on the northwest corner of Preston Street. The firm revamped the plan to its current specifications after the city’s special tall buildings design review panel critiqued it last spring.  Claridge said the panel’s recommendations “focused on several key elements such as the relationship to the public realm, the tower’s podium, and the relationship of the tower within the context of the Preston-Carling corridors.” While current zoning rules limit buildings in the neighbourhood to nine storeys, the city’s secondary plan allows developers to go higher on Carling Avenue near the Dow’s Lake LRT station in an effort to encourage intensification.  Buildings taller than 55 storeys require an Official Plan amendment – a provision that no longer applies to Claridge’s revised proposal, which would still require zoning bylaw amendments. Noting that the property is within 400 metres of the Dow’s Lake light-rail station, Claridge said the plan represents “a significant redevelopment opportunity of an underutilized property in proximity to existing transit,” adding the project “will promote the use of transit and increase housing options along this transit corridor, promoting active transportation within the city’s urban area.” Claridge chief financial officer Neil Malhotra did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.  When Claridge submitted its original proposal nearly four years ago, Malhotra told OBJ he didn’t expect significant backlash over the tower’s then-proposed 60-storey height. He noted the city had already opened the door to “super-tall buildings” in the neighbourhood after green-lighting projects such as the Icon and Richcraft’s proposal for a trio of towers as tall as 55 storeys just down the street at 845 Carling Ave. “We’re going to need bigger, bolder projects to try and address the housing supply shortage that we have in our market,” Malhotra said in an interview in October 2021. Former Somerset councillor Catherine McKenney, who represented the ward at the time, also told OBJ in a 2021 interview she didn’t think the building’s height would be an issue with nearby residents. “That’s where you want intensification,” McKenney said of the Carling-Preston corridor. “I don’t see this (proposal), at least now, as being overly contentious.” But McKenney, who is now the MPP for Ottawa Centre, said she was concerned about the project’s potential traffic impact, arguing the proposed total of 385 parking spots in the original plan was “far too many” for a building that would be located less than a block from the Trillium LRT line and just north of the new Civic Hospital campus. “We accommodate that kind of height because it’s (near) light rail,” McKenney said. “You can’t come back then and ask for excessive vehicle parking. That’s something that we’re going to have to look at.” Current Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.