Ottawa, Insider Only Real Estate

Taggart seeking approval for four towers, new subdivision at Riverside and Hunt Club

May 6, 2024

Taggart Realty Management has filed an application with the city that calls for four mid-rise buildings with a total of 650 units at 3930 and 3960 Riverside Dr., just northwest of the intersection of Riverside Drive and West Hunt Club Road.

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One of Ottawa’s biggest real estate developers wants to turn a 20-acre plot of vacant land near the Rideau River north of Hunt Club Road into a new subdivision with four rental apartment towers as well as dozens of townhouses and single-detached homes. Taggart Realty Management has filed an application with the city that calls for four mid-rise buildings with a total of 650 units at 3930 and 3960 Riverside Dr., just northwest of the intersection of Riverside Drive and West Hunt Club Road. Current zoning rules permit buildings ranging from nine to 17 storeys on the site. In an email to OBJ, Taggart chief operating officer Derek Howe said the site is zoned for “a mix of residential and commercial uses” that could include condos, retirement homes “or potentially a hotel” as the project evolves. The property is located just east of the Rideau River and southwest of Uplands Riverside Park. Howe said the city’s transportation master plan calls for a “major pathway system” between the development site and the river that could eventually allow residents to walk or cycle all the way to downtown. “We are very excited about this project because the site is one of the last remaining undeveloped waterfront properties in the inner urban area of the city that is large enough to establish a new master-planned community,” he said. Taggart Realty’s sister company, Tamarack Homes, plans to build 53 townhouses and 24 single-detached homes on the site, half of which would back on to the Rideau River and a nearby forest. Howe said all of the mid-rise multi-residential buildings are currently earmarked for rental units. The target market for the buildings could include tenants ranging from “students and young families, to mature individuals and couples looking to downsize,” he explained. The subdivision is also expected to include a two-acre public park. Still, Howe suggested the plan is not set in stone. Noting that current zoning rules permit residential and commercial uses, he said the “ultimate build-out may change depending on where the market is for different uses.” Taggart is asking for zoning amendments to open up the entire site for residential use and permit highrises on the portion of the property closest to the intersection of Hunt Club and Riverside. Howe said the firm expects to have the required rezoning and draft plan of subdivision approvals in place by the fall and hopes to start construction on the project as early as next spring. Taggart isn’t the only local developer that’s looking to add more multi-residential inventory to a property near Hunt Club and Riverside. Last fall, Jennings Real Estate filed an application to build a pair of 14-storey residential highrises with about 350 residential units at 3750 N. Bowesville Rd. The 1.66-acre property is located just off Riverside near the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. It is currently home to the Mosaic Convention Centre, a building better known as Tudor Hall that has hosted meetings since the mid-1970s and was acquired by Jennings in 2022.