Katasa seeks approval to build 22-storey mixed-use highrise at Bronson and Carling

November 21, 2023

Katasa Group – which recently acquired a pair of office towers on Slater Street in one of the city’s biggest real estate deals this year – has applied to construct two buildings on a vacant 1.1-acre site at the southwest corner of Carling and Bronson avenues.

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A Gatineau firm is poised to build nearly 300 apartment units on a vacant parcel of prime development land near Carleton University in a plan that goes before city council for approval on Wednesday. Katasa Group – which recently acquired a pair of office towers on Slater Street in one of the city’s biggest real estate deals this year – has applied to construct two buildings on a vacant 1.1-acre site at the southwest corner of Carling and Bronson avenues. The proposal includes a 22-storey mixed-use highrise with 188 residential suites and almost 6,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, as well as a nine-storey building with 90 apartment units. Fifty of the units have three or more bedrooms. Katasa Group partner Tanya Chowieri told OBJ in an August interview the highrise’s nine-storey podium will be earmarked for student housing, with the remaining floors targeted at other types of tenants, including families. The plan also calls for an underground parking garage with space for 133 vehicles, including 27 spots reserved for visitors, as well as 221 bicycle parking spaces. The parcels of land, which are officially known as 770 and 774 Bronson Ave. and 557 Cambridge St. S., have been slated for development for years and have changed hands multiple times. The properties at 774 Bronson Ave. and 557 Cambridge St. were originally rezoned in 2012 to permit a 12-storey building fronting on Bronson Avenue. After that plan fell through, the new owner of the lands, Textbook Suites, got the green light to build a 12-storey student residence on the site in 2017. The proposal would have included 172 fully furnished units ranging from one to three bedrooms and a mix of above- and below-ground parking. Meanwhile, a numbered company received approval the same year to build a six-storey mixed-use building with 48 residential units at 770 Bronson Ave., a project that was scaled back from 15 storeys after residents expressed concerns about the height of the original proposal. However, those plans failed to materialize, and Katasa Group eventually acquired the properties. In 2021, the developer submitted an application to build a 26-storey highrise with a nine-storey podium on the site. Katasa later revised its proposal after residents expressed concerns about the building’s height, design and traffic impacts. The developer reduced the height of the proposed tower, introduced retail space at the corner of Bronson and Carling avenues and set the 22-storey highrise farther back from Bronson Avenue, among other changes. Current zoning bylaws limit buildings to 12 storeys at 774 Bronson Ave. and 557 Cambridge St. and 10 storeys at 770 Bronson Ave. The city’s planning and housing committee approved the developer’s requested zoning amendments earlier this month. The Glebe and Glebe Annex community associations pushed for a further reduction in the height of the 22-storey tower, arguing it will cast shadows on the sports field at nearby Glebe Collegiate Institute and contribute to a growing “urban canyon effect” along Carling Avenue. Coun. Shawn Menard, whose ward includes the proposed development, said he backs the project. “Several significant revisions were made to the initial proposal that this applicant brought forward in response to feedback from my residents, and from my office,” Menard commented in a city staff report. “These changes have made for a better application overall; an application that I am now in a position to support.” The proposal is part of a string of high-profile development projects from Katasa, which made headlines in August with its plan to convert a 13-storey office tower at 130 Slater St. into an apartment complex with more than 200 rental apartments. The Gatineau-based firm’s Ontario arm, KTS Properties, has a number of other developments on the go in Ottawa. They include a 16-storey highrise now under construction at 275 Carling Ave., across the street from 770 Bronson Ave., that features 158 suites aimed at tenants aged 55 and up. Its amenities include an indoor pool, gym, yoga room, party room and virtual golf. Earlier this year, Katasa filed an application to build two towers of 25 and 20 storeys at 1531 St. Laurent Blvd. near the corner of Belfast Road. That plan calls for more than 400 residential units and 5,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. In addition, the firm 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. In August, Chowieri said the firm is eager to keep pursuing multi-residential developments as demand for rental accommodation grows. While rising interest rates and inflation have had a chilling effect on the real estate development industry, she said Katasa has no plans to scrap any projects already in its pipeline. “It’s harder, but if you find a good project that has good potential, it makes it a lot more of a calculated risk,” Chowieri added. “We’re more strategic about which projects would start first, but for now, we’re sure of the projects we currently have.”