The developer behind a plan to build two new residential highrises that would dramatically alter Barrhaven’s skyline says it’s confident the proposal will win community support.
KTS Properties partner and executive lead Tanya Chowieri says the company believes the project – which would feature 26- and 35-storey towers near the intersection of Strandherd and Longfields drives with nearly 600 rental apartment units – jibes with the city’s long-term development plans for the fast-growing suburb of more than 100,000 people southwest of downtown.
“From my understanding with the different councillors and city constituents, they seem to also be pushing for that density in that area,” Chowieri told OBJ in a recent interview. “We’re pretty on track (with) the vision of Barrhaven.”
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KTS Properties, the newly rebranded Ontario arm of Gatineau-based Katasa Group, was incorporated last year. The firm purchased a majority stake in the Barrhaven project from the plan’s original developer, Kionas Construction, about 18 months ago.
It’s one of a string of major proposals in KTS’s development pipeline for Ottawa.
The list also includes a plan to convert a 13-storey office building at 130 Slater St. into an apartment complex with more than 200 rental suites.
KTS Properties partnered with Sudbury-based ARG Devco to acquire 130 Slater as well as a nearby office tower at 66 Slater St. from Toronto’s KingSett Capital nearly a year ago.
While Chowieri noted that 66 Slater has a “low” vacancy rate and will remain an office building for the foreseeable future, 130 Slater is more than two-thirds empty.
She said her firm hopes to obtain a demolition permit from the city in the coming weeks and start tearing the guts out of the 123,000-square-foot building, which opened in 1966, before the end of the year.
‘Perfect for a conversion’
The painstaking process of turning the building’s former office space into apartments is expected to take about 18 months, she added.
“Conversions are quite difficult,” said Chowieri, whose firm transformed a 12-storey office building at the corner of Rideau Street and King Edward Avenue into a student residence several years ago.
“It has to be the right (type of structure). For Slater, I think it’s a great template and will be perfect for a residential conversion.”
Meanwhile, KTS hopes to break ground next year on a 22-storey mixed-use tower with 188 residential units and almost 6,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space at the corner of Carling and Bronson avenues.
The project made headlines in January when Katasa withdrew from a memorandum of understanding to spend $300,000 on traffic-calming measures and affordable housing in the neighbourhood after several councillors slammed the agreement brokered with Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard.
In the end, Katasa decided to donate a total of $300,000 to three local charities instead. Chowieri said the company has come up with a short list of potential recipients and plans to announce which organizations will receive the $100,000 donations in August.
“The events that happened earlier this year were regrettable,” she said of the controversial deal with the city. “But as a company, we have not lost focus on our mission and what we do best. We have no issues with the city or anyone from the community.”
Chowieri said a number of other local projects are also winding their way through the approval and construction process.
Not far from the 22-storey tower at Carling and Bronson, the firm is working on a 16-storey highrise at 275 Carling Ave. featuring 158 suites aimed at tenants aged 55 and up. The development is expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of the year.
In addition, Chowieri said the company hopes to get started “soon” on a two-building, nine-storey apartment complex at 1509 Merivale Rd. just south of the intersection of Clyde Avenue that will contain about 200 residential suites.
KTS’s longer-term projects include a plan to build two towers of 25 and 20 storeys at 1531 St. Laurent Blvd. near the corner of Belfast Road. Chowieri said that development, which is expected to feature more than 400 residential units and 5,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, probably won’t get launched until at least 2026.
Finally, KTS also wants to build a mixed-use complex at 381 Kent St. between Gilmour and James streets.
The plan would see the five-storey medical building that now occupies the property demolished and replaced with a nine-storey building that includes 218 residential units and more than 1,800 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Chowieri said work on that project will likely begin some time in 2026 after the conversion of 130 Slater St. is completed.
