The city’s planning committee has approved a proposal by Ottawa’s Claridge Homes to build a record-breaking 50-storey highrise tower in Little Italy.
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The city’s planning committee has approved a proposal by Ottawa’s Claridge Homes to build a record-breaking 50-storey highrise tower in Little Italy.
The mixed-use complex at 829 Carling Ave. will include 503 residential units and is located near an LRT station and the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus.
The proposal will now go to city council for final approval.
Claridge originally proposed the project in 2022, with a plan to build a record-shattering 60-storey tower. In April, the plan was scaled back to the current design, which will still be taller than the current record-holder, Claridge’s Icon condo tower, located across the street at 805 Carling Ave.
On the ground floor, the development will include 3,200 square feet of commercial space on the Preston Street side, an increase from the 2,800 square feet Claridge proposed in 2021.
In its report, city staff said it's a move that “(reinforces) the Mainstreet Corridor character.” The main residential and office entrance will be located on Carling Avenue.
To address complaints that the first plan included too much parking, Claridge cut the proposed number of vehicle parking spots to 196 from 385 in the original proposal, while boosting the number of bicycle spaces to 482.
Vehicle parking spaces would be located in a six-storey underground garage accessible from Sidney Street.
According to a site plan recently filed with the city, the building, designed by Toronto’s Hariri Pontarini Architects, would include 264 one-bedroom apartments, 168 two-bedroom units, 48 studio apartments and 23 three-bedroom suites.
It’s the latest iteration of what would be the biggest development project yet in an area that’s ground zero for a spate of lofty mixed-use proposals.
The firm revamped the plan to its current specifications after the city’s special tall buildings design review panel critiqued it last spring.
Claridge said the panel’s recommendations “focused on several key elements such as the relationship to the public realm, the tower’s podium, and the relationship of the tower within the context of the Preston-Carling corridors.”
While current zoning rules limit buildings in the neighbourhood to nine storeys, the city’s secondary plan allows developers to go higher on Carling Avenue near the Dow’s Lake LRT station in an effort to encourage intensification.
Buildings taller than 55 storeys require an Official Plan amendment – a provision that no longer applies to Claridge’s revised proposal, which would still require zoning bylaw amendments.
Noting that the property is within 400 metres of the Dow’s Lake light-rail station, Claridge said the plan represents “a significant redevelopment opportunity of an underutilized property in proximity to existing transit,” adding the project “will promote the use of transit and increase housing options along this transit corridor, promoting active transportation within the city’s urban area.”
When Claridge submitted its original proposal nearly four years ago, chief financial officer Neil Malhotra told OBJ he didn’t expect significant backlash over the tower’s then-proposed 60-storey height. He noted the city had already opened the door to “super-tall buildings” in the neighbourhood after green-lighting projects such as the Icon and Richcraft’s proposal for a trio of towers as tall as 55 storeys just down the street at 845 Carling Ave.
“We’re going to need bigger, bolder projects to try and address the housing supply shortage that we have in our market,” Malhotra said in an interview in October 2021.
With files from David Sali
