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Following plans for development going back more than a decade, Claridge Homes has unveiled its latest proposal to build a cluster of five highrise residential towers within Ottawa's long-forgotten LeBreton Flats neighbourhood just west of downtown, where the slow pace of redevelopment has recently witnessed an uptick in action now that the long-awaited Confederation Line LRT is set to reconnect the area to the rest of the city.
Featuring five residential towers (three 25-storey towers, one 30-storey tower, and one 55-storey "landmark" tower), which will deliver a mix of 1,650 market and affordable housing units to the neighbourhood, the base of each tower will offer a mix of retail and other services including a much-needed grocery store and daycare centre.
Proposed to rise up along the eastern side of Booth Street, south of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, and kitty corner to the Canadian War Museum, the site and its neighbouring parcels have long been dormant. LeBreton Flats was historically the site of a long-gone neighbourhood of old tenement blocks cleared away in the 1960s as part of a controversial urban renewal project, and the slate of redevelopment should breathe new life into the area.
Central to the LeBreton Flats proposal is a host of public realm and streetscape improvements, such as the addition of bike lanes and an upgraded pedestrian walkway along Booth Street, which would serve as the main thoroughfare in and out of the complex. To eventually be served by a new LRT stop, LeBreton Flats will soon become a bustling new neighbourhood, connected to downtown and the broader city via rapid transit.
Beyond the shops and bike lanes, another key component of the LeBreton Flats proposal includes the development of a sprawling, city-built park, which would include a series of paths and green spaces that would interplay with the rehabilitated aqueduct and riverfront framing the newly reimagined neighbourhood. An exciting proposal for many different reasons, the project would be the work of perhaps 10-15 years depending on the speed of approvals, rezoning, land remediation, construction, and parkland redevelopment.
SkyriseCities will be sure to return to this project as progress continues. For more information, check out the associated Database file and Forum thread, and as always, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below.
