Wesley Clover unveils details of office-to-residential conversion project in Kanata North

In a site plan application recently filed with the city, Wesley Clover International, which owns the hotel, The Marshes Golf Club and the adjoining office property at 535 Legget Dr., says the repurposed 11-storey tower will contain 115 rental apartments and about 4,300 square feet of ground-floor office space.

An office building in Kanata that is slated to be converted into a residential complex will include a direct connection to the nearby Brookstreet Hotel so tenants can use the resort’s amenities, new documents show. In a site plan application recently filed with the city, Wesley Clover International, which owns the hotel, The Marshes Golf Club and the adjoining office property at 535 Legget Dr., says the repurposed 11-storey tower will contain 115 rental apartments and about 4,300 square feet of ground-floor office space. The plan calls for several changes to the existing building, including a new entrance for residents at the southwest corner. In addition, the tower will be recladded and Juliette balconies will be added. Residents will also gain access to facilities at the Brookstreet, which is located just east of the office tower, and the adjoining golf club.  “A connection to the Brookstreet Hotel will be provided and the facilities of the Brookstreet Hotel will be available to residents,” the document says. “These include restaurants, fitness facilities, spa, golf course and meeting and event spaces.”

The property will include parking spaces for 108 vehicles, with 85 reserved for residents and 23 for visitors. Wesley Clover says “new vehicular and pedestrian accesses” to Legget Drive will be created to make it easier for tenants and visitors to enter and exit the property. The office building is currently accessed via 555 Legget Dr., “and the intention is to visually and functionally separate the residential building from neighbouring office buildings,” the site plan document explains. Wesley Clover says the proposed development will bring new residents to Kanata North. It says its plan “supports the objectives of 15-minute neighbourhoods by providing additional housing near parks and greenspaces, active transportation routes and future bus rapid transit services.” The current proposal does not include a retail component. Noting there is already a “small commercial cluster” next door at 555 Legget Dr., Wesley Clover says the new residential complex will also be served by more than 20,000 square feet of new retail space that’s expected to be built just a stone’s-throw to the west at 570 March Rd. in Nokia’s renovated office and R&D campus. KRP Properties, which manages the office tower, announced the plan to turn the 140,669-square-foot building into an apartment complex last year.  The company said it is “looking at getting ahead of the curve” as the office-to-residential conversion trend gains momentum in the wake of the widespread move to remote and hybrid work during the pandemic. Officially known as Tower C, the building opened in 2000 and is the newest of three office highrises at 535 Legget Dr. in the heart of the Kanata North tech park. As of last June, the building had a vacancy rate of 21 per cent. KRP would not disclose the building’s tenants to OBJ last year, citing confidentiality agreements. Past occupants included fast-growing software firm Solace, which previously occupied several floors in the building before relocating to nearby 4000 Innovation Dr. early in 2024.

Conversion trend

Wesley Clover is just the latest Ottawa property owner that is opting to repurpose underused office space as apartments. Half a dozen such projects have been launched in the past two years – most of them in the downtown core, where office vacancy rates have soared since the COVID-19 crisis. The Kanata project is the second office-to-residential conversion announced for a suburban property in Ottawa. Last April, Gatineau-based Devcore Group said it will redevelop most of a 230,000-square-foot office complex on Telesat Court in Ottawa’s east end into loft-style studio apartments. The Legget Drive conversion will be the first of its kind in Kanata North, which has traditionally not featured much residential development. That’s changing, however. Nokia, for example, is planning to eventually tear down its current office tower at 600 March Rd., just north of its new R&D campus, and replace it with apartment buildings, Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry told OBJ in December. Meanwhile, several developers are also planning to add more housing density to the neighbourhood, a trend that has accelerated since the City of Ottawa adopted a new Official Plan two years ago that allows for greater density along major corridors such as March Road and eliminates rules that require a certain percentage of dwelling types on such properties. Gatineau-based Brigil is ramping up a plan to build more than 1,900 residential units on 50 acres of land northwest of The Marshes Golf Club on March Road. In addition, Toronto’s Main and Main Developments wants to transform a 13.6-acre site at the corner of March Road and Terry Fox Drive into a cluster of mid- and highrise buildings that would include more than 2,000 residential suites.