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Morguard Corp. has filed a development application for 500 Coventry Rd. that would see a 28-storey highrise constructed on the southeast corner of the property.
The owner of the St. Laurent Shopping Centre wants to build up to eight residential towers near the east-end mall as part of a long-term project to redevelop former industrial land into a mixed-use community with new streets and public parks.Morguard Corp. has filed a development application for 500 Coventry Rd. that would see a 28-storey highrise constructed on the southeast corner of the property.The highrise would feature 309 apartments in a mix of 140 one-bedroom suites, 138 two-bedroom units and 31 three-bedroom units. The application does not specify whether they would be rental apartments or condos.Morguard did not immediately respond to a series of questions about the proposal from OBJ.The plan calls for an underground garage with 177 parking spaces for residents and 30 for visitors. The 112 existing surface parking spots on the property would also be retained.The proposed highrise would include more than 50,000 square feet of amenity space, and a 0.8-acre public park would occupy the northeast corner of the site.The project would be the first phase in what Morguard describes as a long-term plan to create a “mixed-use, highrise community” near the mall and adjoining LRT station.The square-shaped, eight-and-a-half-acre site at 500 Coventry Rd., located just west of the shopping centre and adjacent six-storey office building, is among a number of properties the Toronto-based real estate company owns in the area.Morguard has been consulting with the city for more than a decade in an effort to get Coventry Road shifted farther west in a bid to consolidate its properties, which also include the shopping centre site at 1200 St. Laurent Blvd. as well as two parcels of land on the north side of Coventry Road.The firm wants to combine all the properties into one parcel of land, which would be redeveloped with as many as eight residential towers up to 30 storeys tall. Morguard says its long-term concept plan for 500 Coventry Rd. could include up to eight highrises.Morguard says it thought it reached an agreement with the city more than a decade ago to relocate Coventry Road, but it says city staff are now recommending the street be left where it is. In planning documents, the developer says it opposes staff’s current position “based on an understanding and verbal agreement that the Coventry Road right-of-way would be realigned.”Morguard says it has already met twice with Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King to discuss the proposed realignment of Coventry Road as well as the firm’s long-term plans to redevelop its properties along the street. The firm “has regular meetings scheduled to continue to work collaboratively on the city’s ongoing environmental assessment process and the proposed development,” according to planning documents. The company has crafted two broad concepts for the potential redevelopment of the sites. In both options, greater heights and densities are concentrated closer to the St. Laurent LRT station, with parkland interspersed with surface parking lots along a series of new streets.Concept No. 1 would require a portion of the existing shopping mall and parkade to be demolished in order to accommodate the layout, while concept No. 2 would keep the mall’s current footprint intact.Morguard says it prefers the second option because it would be easier to maintain the existing infrastructure under Coventry Road, the two proposed parks would be of equal size and no part of the mall would need to be torn down.The firm did not provide a timeline for the proposed redevelopment. In a recently filed site plan application for the first highrise, Morguard says its master concept plan for the area is a “long-term framework that may be adjusted over time to accommodate market demands and evolving planning objectives.”The site is already zoned for transit-oriented development with maximum building heights of 30 storeys. While there is currently a hold on new development at the site until Coventry Road is relocated, Morguard says a realignment of the street is “not proposed as part of the current application,” adding it will apply to lift the hold so the 28-storey project can go ahead.The developer says the plan fits with the city’s long-term goal of building more “15-minute neighbourhoods” where residents can easily walk or take transit to office buildings, supermarkets, retail stores and other amenities.“Historically, the general character of Coventry Road has been industrial, consisting mostly of industrial-warehouse buildings located on large lots with ample surface parking and loading spaces in the front and rear of the properties,” the company notes in the site plan application. “Over time, Coventry Road has redeveloped and diversified, and the character of the road is now evolving towards a more mixed-use community consisting of commercial, institutional, office and leisure uses.”Morguard is not the only developer looking to add more density near St. Laurent Shopping Centre, the city’s third-largest mall, and the nearby LRT station.In early 2023, council approved an application to rezone property at 435 and 455 Coventry Rd., just northwest of Morguard’s proposed 28-storey tower, to allow for mixed-use highrises on the three-acre site.Earlier that year, Montreal-based developer Groupe Oradev filed a proposal to tear down an industrial building and attached three-storey office complex farther west at 400 Coventry Rd. and replace them with seven mixed-use towers ranging from 18 to 30 storeys.
