Developer proposes 24-storey highrise at site of former Mandarin Ogilvie restaurant

The well-known dining establishment ended its 36-year run on Ogilvie Road at the beginning of June after the family that owned the restaurant and shopping plaza sold the property to TCU.

A popular Chinese restaurant that closed earlier this year will be torn down to make way for a mixed-use highrise as part of a plan to redevelop the east-end property. TCU Development Corp. has filed a proposal to build a 24-storey tower with 323 rental apartment units on the northeast corner of Ogilvie Road and Cummings Avenue.  The Mandarin Plaza, a strip mall that includes the Mandarin Ogilvie restaurant, now occupies the site. The well-known dining establishment ended its 36-year run on Ogilvie Road at the beginning of June after the family that owned the restaurant and shopping plaza sold the property to TCU. “We’ve liked the area for a while, and when the opportunity came up, we were definitely interested,” Dylan Desjardins, TCU’s vice-president of operations, told OBJ in an interview earlier this week. TCU has several projects on the go in the neighbourhood, which is located about half a kilometre north of highway 417 between the St. Laurent Shopping Centre and the Cyrville LRT station. Desjardins said the area’s proximity to major transit hubs and the city’s main east-west traffic artery make it an ideal location for rental complexes aimed at young professionals. “Once you hop on transit, it’s nine minutes to get to the University of Ottawa,” he noted. “There is a lot of connectivity in that spot, and there are tons of amenities.” TCU’s plan also calls for about 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor of the proposed highrise. Desjardins said the firm expects to have some agreements with potential retail tenants finalized in the near future.  

In keeping with its target demographic, TCU wants to include almost as many parking spaces for bicycles as cars.  The current plan features 186 spots for motor vehicles and 163 slots for bicycles. However, Desjardins said car-sharing facilities and other amenities could eventually be added to the proposal. The company is working with a number of partners, including Roderick Lahey Architects and NAK Design Strategies, on elements such as a privately owned public space that would also be part of the project. “It’s still a work in progress,” Desjardins explained. TCU’s other nearby projects include a six-storey, 188-unit rental building at 1188 Cummings Ave. and a six-storey multi-family development at 1155 Joseph Cyr St., just east of the St. Laurent Shopping Centre. They are part of a flurry of new construction activity that is reshaping the skyline around St. Laurent mall and the Cyrville LRT station.  Just south of TCU’s proposed highrise on Ogilvie Road, for example, a trio of developers has launched a mixed-use project that will include three residential highrises of 25, 27 and 36 storeys. When that project, dubbed LUX Place, was announced four years ago, partner Denis Archambault said he hoped it would spur a new wave of development and help bring the neighbourhood bordered by Ogilvie Road, Cyrville Road and Cummings Avenue “back to life.”   “Living without the necessity of a car when you’re on the LRT line will create demand for rental housing in that area,” he added in a 2020 interview. “Even if (overall rental demand) does soften down the road, whatever’s on the line tends to be fully absorbed quite quickly.” Desjardins said his firm hopes to start construction on the Ogilvie Road highrise before the end of next year, pending the required zoning approvals from the city.  Meanwhile, TCU continues to seek other development opportunities across the region in an effort to address “gaps” in the rental housing market, he added. “Ottawa is still an undersupplied city when it comes to multi-family rentals,” Desjardins said. “We need to pick up the pace (of housing starts). But I definitely think there are a lot of positive things that are happening. We’re starting to see construction costs come closer in line with our expectations. Rental rates are in a good spot. Things are still difficult, the market is still fluctuating, but I think the horizon is looking much better.”