Posted Aug 15, 2020, 4:21 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Ottawa
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From November 2019. I split the article in two since it covers Chapel and Bayview (with foot notes on Gladstone and Richmond).
Quote:
Trinity begins building its huge Ottawa development pipeline
Don Wilcox
Renx Nov. 21, 2019
Trinity Development Group has been laying the groundwork for years to develop several major residential-focused projects in Ottawa. The company and its partners hope they are now about to start reaping the rewards of a 2,700-apartment pipeline in the National Capital.
**SNIP**
Other Trinity Ottawa projects
As shovels enter the ground for Rideau and Chapel, Trinity’s founder and executive chairman John Ruddy, president/CEO Fred Waks and its Toronto-based management team are also shepherding three other projects in the city through various pre-development phases.
The largest is Trinity Centre at Bayview Station, a mixed-use, multi-tower development with partners InterRent and PBC Group.
This site effectively gives Trinity book-end developments at the west and east boundaries of the Central Business District. Trinity Centre will sit directly atop the junction of Ottawa’s two LRT lines, once the next phase of the infrastructure project is completed.
A third project, Gladstone and Loretto, is along the soon-to-be-expanded Ottawa Confederation LRT line. It’s proposed as a mixed-use tower with 745 units, plus about 190,000 square feet of office and 18,000 square feet of retail.
This is no coincidence.
Trinity Centre at Bayview Station will be a joint venture involving Trinity, InterRent and PBC Group. (Courtesy Trinity)
“John had us do a study years ago where we really followed the LRT line and we identified all of the proposed stops. Then we were looking for land around those,” said Laing.
“So we have our 900 Albert project, we have our Gladstone and Loretto project, each at a node, a new station. That was really the intention behind that. It was just literally following the transit.
“We’ve looked at other locations as well, (but) nothing that we are bringing forward at this time.”
The other development in Trinity’s current pipeline is Richmond and Island Park, more of a boutique-style development which would feature ground-floor retail in a mid-rise building with 40 residential units.
What’s driving the urge to build
900 Albert features three towers and an expansive, multi-level podium. It will also be built in phases, and is planned to contain 1,300 housing units, about 85,000 square feet of retail and 500,000 square feet of office space.
“900 Albert is a project that’s been around for, I would say, seven years and it really picked up steam in the last year-and-a-half as well,” Laing said. “We pushed forward and got the zoning approval; now we’re just working through (the) site plan and we have a construction schedule being put together for that one as well.”
The key drivers to all the projects have been Ottawa’s population growth and growing economy. The city has just surpassed one million residents, has an apartment vacancy rate south of two per cent and its office and industrial vacancy rates have been steadily declining for several years.
“I’ve attended several forums in the past year-and-a-half and there’s been a constant discussion about how well the Ottawa market is doing,” Laing said.
Trinity’s projects are not the only significant developments across the city. RioCan REIT and Killam Apartment REIT are developing multiple rental apartment towers just a few kilometres east of the downtown, along the LRT. The massive Zibi project is underway west of the core and other developers have major residential-based developments at various stages.
Despite its ongoing growth, though, could Ottawa suddenly face an overbuild situation?
“That’s always a concern,” Laing admitted. “The term I like to use is conservatively aggressive. You want to have the principals in place where you don’t end up in a situation where you over-assumed a market. We’re really focusing in on that and that’s why a lot of these projects have phasing.
“Even 900 Albert has a phasing plan, Gladstone has as well and Rideau obviously.
“If we were super-aggressive, it’d be ‘We’re building it all.’ That probably wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Through phasing it, (we’re) giving ourselves the opportunity to continue to test those markets and to really gather all the information and make the right decisions based on that.”
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https://renx.ca/trinity-begins-building-its-huge-ottawa-development-pipeline/
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