[secretlynotarobot]

Saw an excavator and a truck from a fuel tank contractor on site yesterday; good to see some signs of life on the ground and with the city.

 

[hoggytime]

This morning

 

[J.OT13]

Hopefully, this gets approved and officially underway this year.

 

[originalmuffins]

The site is looking pretty forlorn these days, I would love to see shovels in the Spring! The list of changes the URDP requested was extensive, so we'll see how Brigil responds in such short time.

I feel like Brigil would love to build this ASAP as a big F U to the Gatineau council that blocked their Peuples proposal. But also a way of, if they do enough bigger projects well, maybe they'll be entrusted with it? I'm all for it though, this development will impact our city in a very good way. I love how it almost rivals the Icon.

 

[hoggytime]

I feel like Brigil would love to build this ASAP as a big F U to the Gatineau council that blocked their Peuples proposal. But also a way of, if they do enough bigger projects well, maybe they'll be entrusted with it? I'm all for it though, this development will impact our city in a very good way. I love how it almost rivals the Icon.

I would argue that it more than rivals Icon. Icon sits at the bottom of a gully and loses prominence from many angles. This one has what would today be our 2nd and 3rd tallest towers, it's smack dab in the centre of the city, on a good prominent lot, and would be truly epic from the 417.

 

[originalmuffins]

I would argue that it more than rivals Icon. Icon sits at the bottom of a gully and loses prominence from many angles. This one has what would today be our 2nd and 3rd tallest towers, it's smack dab in the centre of the city, on a good prominent lot, and would be truly epic from the 417.

Fair point. All that does is makes me more excited to see this goes up. I'd love for this to break ground by the end of the year. Seeing these bad boys and the Dream Towers go up will be really really impactful as a start.

 

[pgagnon]

This truly is a unique and special project, replacing an empty lot in the City's core. Love the design, the materials & the scale. If this goes up as-is, it would truly be one of the top 3 or 5 developments projects in Ottawa.

 

[hoggytime]

New Article from the OBJ:

Brigil hopes to launch development at former Greyhound bus station site later this year

David Sali

• February 9, 2024
• 3:17 PM
• ET

Brigil has unveiled its plan to build three highrises on the site of the former Greyhound bus terminal.

Brigil hopes to break ground later this year on a mixed-use development project that could eventually see three highrises containing more than 1,000 residential units constructed at the site of the former Greyhound bus terminal on Catherine Street.
“Things are moving along well” on the proposal, the firm’s vice-president of development, Jessy Desjardins, said in an interview with OBJ this week.
The Gatineau-based firm has filed an application to build three towers ranging from 26 to 40 storeys at the 2.8-acre property on Catherine Street between Kent and Lyon streets. The developer bought the land in 2021 after the bus station shut down in the wake of the pandemic and demolished the building the following year.

The proposal is still winding its way through the approval process at the City of Ottawa, but Desjardins said he’s confident it will win council’s approval before the end of 2024.
The plan calls for towers of 26, 36 and 40 storeys, with two buildings facing Catherine Street and one fronting on Lyon Street. The project also includes townhouses and a six-storey residential building along Arlington Avenue as well as a 0.25-acre public park on the northeast corner of Arlington Avenue and Kent Street.
The project would include a total of about 1,030 residential units in a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. In addition, the plan calls for more than 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that would be located mainly in a pair of six-storey podiums facing Catherine Street.

The proposal drew some criticism last summer from a prominent downtown business advocate who expressed concerns about the heights of the proposed towers and said she wanted to see more parkland included in the development.
At the time, Desjardins told OBJ Brigil had conducted several rounds of public consultations in 2021 and 2022 and took input from those sessions into account when devising its current proposal.

‘More community-oriented’ project​

He said he believed the resulting plan is a “more community-oriented” project that focuses on residential, retail and green space.
“I think that’s what we delivered, and we’re very excited about the final proposal,” Desjardins said in an interview last June. “It’s definitely a project that we are very motivated by.”
The first phase of the development will see the creation of the public park and construction of adjoining market and events space as well as other services that could include a restaurant and artists’ studio, Desjardins said in this week’s interview with OBJ.
While that work is happening, Brigil plans to turn some of the remaining property into a “temporary public plaza” to “test ideas” for community programs that will attract people to the neighbourhood, he added.

“We are really looking to collaborate with the community on that one to see what we can do in the short term to improve the area,” Desjardins said.
Meanwhile, Brigil continues to shepherd a series of other projects through its development pipeline.

Brigil is proposing to build two highrises of 28 and 32 storeys at 1299 Richmond Rd.
The closest to completion is a 28-storey rental tower at 99 Parkdale Ave., the second phase of a two-tower project. The 240-unit highrise should be ready for occupancy this fall, Desjardins said.
The developer also expects to start construction later this year on a pair of four-storey buildings and a 20-storey highrise at the site of a former strip mall on Ridgewood Avenue near Mooney’s Bay. That project will include a total of about 440 rental apartments.
“We’re pretty excited about that site,” Desjardins said.
Longer-term projects on Brigil’s docket include a three-building development on Baseline Road and a two-tower proposal for Richmond Road. The builder is still consulting with the public and city planners on those projects, Desjardins said.

In addition, he said the developer is “refining” its plan to build a residential highrise near the Bayshore Shopping Centre.
Brigil’s original proposal called for a 30-storey building with 330 rental apartments. After consulting with nearby residents and city planning officials, the firm is now hoping to gain approval for a taller tower of up to 40 storeys that would include as many as 370 units.
All projects in the company’s development queue are currently forecast as rental complexes, but Desjardins said that could change as time goes on.
“When we look at a site, depending on the market, we always have the opportunity to convert (units) to condos or rentals,” he said. “We’re pretty open to adapting to the market. Right now, people are looking more towards rentals.”
With interest rates at their highest level in decades and inflation driving up construction costs across the board, many developers have pressed pause on major projects in recent months.
But Desjardins said Brigil is “actively looking for new sites to develop” in the Ottawa region.

“I think it’s tricky for everybody,” he said of the current macroeconomic environment. “Everybody’s looking at ways to make the numbers work. But there’s a need for housing. So we’re working on ways to secure financing and make sure the numbers work. It’s not an easy market, but we’re confident about our projects.”

 

[hoggytime]

 

[secretlynotarobot]

Some weeks nothing, some weeks it pours. The day this breaks ground I figure we'll all be able to take 2-2h30 off from complaining about the city

 

[originalmuffins]

Wow!! Great news and awesome movements by Brigil to be honest. I really hope we can see them start on this by year end. That would hopefully be the catalyst to start seeing the other bigger projects go up too.

 

[secretlynotarobot]

Not sure this is anything more than remediation work at this point but the hole keeps getting bigger.

 

[hoggytime]

If anything, it's an incredibly good sign that they are ready to start as soon they get approval on the forthcoming revisions.

 

[J.OT13]

Probably remediation. This site was a bus station for half a century. I assume it also had a diesel station for the buses as well, so I imagine there's quite a bit of decontamination needed. That said, it's still a very good sign that Brigil is tackling that now.

 

[urbottawa]

Feedback posted from the latest UDRP:

265 Catherine Street | Formal Review | Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment & Site Plan Control Application | Brigil, BDP Quadrangle, GBA Group

Key Recommendations​

• The Panel appreciates and supports how the project has come along through multiple reviews and the proponent’s willingness to attend Urban Design Review Panel for multiple reviews.
• The Panel appreciates the multiple reviews and correspondence this project and the proponent team has accommodated to improve the proposal.
• The Panel appreciates and supports the strong attention to detail apparent in this high quality and highly urban proposal, and are hopeful to see that carry through to the build out of the site.
• The Panel supports and appreciates the changes that have been implemented since the previous Urban Design Review Panel's review.
  • The Panel appreciates the lowering of the podium heights and revised massing.
  • The Panel appreciates the refinements made to the material and colour palette of the podium’s architectural expression(s).
  • The Panel appreciates the refinements made to improve the public realm, landscaping, and pedestrian experience through the site.
• The Panel recommends a refined focus on the details of the design, especially regarding the nuances of colour and textures in the materiality, in order to deliver on the high-quality architectural details of the proposal.
  • In particular, the Panel recommends giving considerable attention to the white material in the podiums, and suggest in general to maintain a varied masonry materiality in the podium.
• The Panel recommends revisiting the scale of the townhouses in the project and ensuring that they can hold their own in the block plan.
  • Consider perhaps a more modern typology, such as stacked or back-to-back towns.

Site Design & Public Realm​

• The Panel appreciates the unique proposal for the site and the dynamic programming on the north side.
• The Panel recommends ensuring a 4.5-5 metre height clearance is provided for the underpass between the art space and market space, to provide the link between the parkland dedication and the interior of the site adequate breathing room.
• The Panel appreciates that the grade level paving treatments, details, and landscaping were well thought through in designing a cohesive block.
• The Panel appreciates the proponent’s approach to the at-grade relationship between interior and exterior spaces, and how they interact.

Built Form & Architecture​

• The Panel has concerns with the white material in the podium along Catherine Street, and how it will contrast the various red and brown brick and tones in the rest of the podium.
  • The Panel encourages using a masonry material for the white podium material, and recommends a certain nuance to the white material is necessary as it currently pops out too much from the rest of the podium design in the renderings.
• The Panel recommends the proponents spend considerable time and effort on determining what will be the right type and quality of bricks and materials, particularly in the podium, to ensure the varying architectural expressions are high quality and do not come across as a pastiche of sorts.
  • The Panel recommends the proponents consider playing on the types of masonry used in the podiums—e.g., glazed brick and rougher brick.
• The Panel has concerns that the linear white striped expression of the towers appears too institutional in character, especial in the eastern and western towers.
  • The Panel recommends exploring more of a punched brick element in the towers’ architectural expression.
  • Consider integrating the tower expressions more closely with the architectural expression(s) in the podiums.
• The Panel appreciates that there is a balance of both a variety and unity in the architecture of the three towers.
• The Panel expressed that a refined attention to the brick detailing, corbeling, and framing in the podiums architectural expression(s) will be extremely important in ensuring that the desired effect is achieved at the build out stage.