Nokia’s plan to build nearly 600,000 square feet of new office, R&D and retail space on March Road is expected to usher in a wave of new developments that will transform the Kanata North tech park into a thriving mixed-use community hub, proponents say. The Finnish telecom giant recently unveiled its site plan for the […]
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Nokia’s plan to build nearly 600,000 square feet of new office, R&D and retail space on March Road is expected to usher in a wave of new developments that will transform the Kanata North tech park into a thriving mixed-use community hub, proponents say.
The Finnish telecom giant recently unveiled its site plan for the first phase of a long-term project that could eventually see thousands of residential units as well as shops and restaurants constructed at the Nokia campus near the corner of March Road and Terry Fox Drive.
According to a recent site plan control application, the first phase of the project at 570 March Rd. will include roughly 592,000 square feet of new office, R&D and retail space, with completion targeted for 2027.
Nokia spokesman Kevin Petschow told OBJ in an email last week the company will provide more details about the project “as they become available.”
Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry said she has been receiving updates on the project’s status from Nokia “almost every week,” adding she expects site preparation work to begin shortly.
“As soon as this is approved, they will have what they need,” Curry said. “They know that people would like to see this go up as quickly as possible. In the corporate world, time is money, and they want to make sure they can get in the ground and start building as quickly as possible.”
Curry and local business leaders say Nokia’s new campus is just the first of a series of projects that will add new businesses such as restaurants and bars as well as thousands of new residential units to an area that was previously dominated by office towers.
Nokia’s 11-acre site between March Road and Legget Drive is located in the heart of Kanata’s technology park, an area that was designated a “special economic district” in the City of Ottawa’s latest official plan three years ago.
Since then, Curry said, she and city officials have had about 10 meetings with tech leaders, developers and neighbouring community associations to look at ways of streamlining the zoning approval process to fast-track projects such as Nokia’s.
“The idea is that whatever the regular timeline used to be … this should be significantly shorter,” she said. “(The designation) really reduces red tape … and all the difficult, challenging steps that used to be in place prior to having a special economic district.”
The special status also loosens zoning rules that restricted what could be built in the tech park, paving the way for more highrise residential developments.
As a result, Nokia plans to eventually tear down its current office tower at 600 March Rd., just north of the new campus, and replace it with apartment buildings, Curry told OBJ. The company's original proposal called for around 2,000 residential units at the site.
