Riding the redevelopment rails
By Peter Kovessy, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Wed, Nov 25, 2009 4:00 PM EST
http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/295971895949675.php
Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street BIA. (Etienne Ranger, OBJ)
Swath of land along the O-Train corridor in Little Italy poised for a building boom
Give a quick glance around, and there are signs at least one person lives in the vacant lot known legally as 125 Champagne Ave., just north of Carling Avenue.
A blue tarp, weighed down with chunks of broken asphalt, hangs from a stack of lumber to the surface of the former parking lot. It shields two bare mattresses stacked on top of each other. Leaves accumulate on a loveseat and easy chair that face a brown end table featuring a covered frying pan and coffee travel mug.
The makeshift dwelling may be hidden from view, but the individual who calls this part of Little Italy home is likely to soon have a few new neighbours.
There are more than a half-dozen properties along the O-Train tracks, between Carling Avenue and Somerset Street, which are ripe for redevelopment. Several recently changed hands in multimillion-dollar deals, as residential and commercial developers draft plans for high-density condominiums and office towers in an area once known as an industrial hub.
"Preston Street is getting better and better. It seduced us, it pulled us in," says John Doran, president of Domicile Developments. The firm conditionally purchased a former manufacturing facility in the area and plans to build condos and townhouses on the site.
Back on 125 Champagne Ave., also known as 125 Hickory St., a faded billboard lies near a pile of empty juice jugs and weather-beaten fragments of an Old Milwaukee beer case. It advertises the Acquerello, an 11-storey condominium project marketed earlier this decade that never got off the ground.
In the ensuing years, however, others found success. On nearby Loretta Avenue, Domicile is set to launch the third phase of its Merrion Square condominium and townhouse development. Thirty of the 65 units sold in the first couple of weeks, says Mr. Doran, adding almost all the units in the buildings nearing completion are also sold.
"We clearly want another stake in the neighbourhood," he says.
On the commercial side, some real estate watchers predict Little Italy has the potential to become a second downtown office market as private-sector tenants are forced out of the core by higher rents and federal government dominance.
Part of the attraction of properties along the O-Train corridor is their proximity to the Queensway, downtown core and Preston Street's lively business district, as well as natural features such as Dow's Lake and the Experimental Farm.
The area is also poised to become a transit hub when the city converts the O-Train into a longer north-south light rail line and considers laying tracks along Carling Avenue.
"All (of the city's transit proposals) seem to promise very good rapid transit at our doorstep," says Mr. Doran.
But some say the city needs to act now to ensure pending redevelopment projects maximize the returns to the surrounding community.
Eric Darwin, president of the Dalhousie Community Association and the author of a popular Ottawa blog, says the city needs to complete its Bayview-Carling community design plan, which stalled when the previous north-south rail line was cancelled.
He says every builder wants views of Dow's Lake and the Experimental Farm, something that may not happen if the city chooses to rezone each property ad hoc – a plan will help maximize property values for all landowners, he says.
"You only get rare chances to develop a neighbourhood," says Mr. Darwin.
Similarly, Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street Business Improvement Association, says additional pedestrian connections are needed. Currently, the only way across the rail trench is at Carling Avenue or Beech Street, approximately a five-minute walk to the north.
A new pedestrian crossing would make it easier for future Champagne Avenue residents and office workers to shop on Preston Street.
"It's critical that (these developments) don't turn their back on our main street," says Ms. Mellor.
"We don't want to be cut off by all this development. We want to be an integral part of it."
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'WE LIKE TO GET INTO NEIGHBOURHOODS THAT ARE EMERGING'
855 Carling Ave. (Arnon Corp. development site, currently a surface parking lot)
The 2.3-acre site could eventually feature two office towers totalling 400,000 square feet, according to documents filed with the city. Earlier this year, Arnon Corp. filed a rezoning application with the city that would effectively double the permitted density of the site, which is currently a surface parking lot used by Civic Hospital employees.
Included in the application were diagrams showing a 15-storey office tower linked to a 12-storey office tower, but Arnon vice-president of development Michael Casey cautioned in an interview this summer that it was premature to discuss the type of project.
The development site could also be used for residential or mixed office-residential projects, the company notes.
At the north end of the parking lot is an unpaved parcel fronting a closed section of Hickory Street, surrounded by Arnon's property to the east, west and south. Several observers say it is owned by the Canadian Medical Protective Association, which also owns the two high-end Dow's Lake Court office buildings at Carling and Champagne avenues. A spokesperson for the CMPA said there are no immediate plans for the land.
125 Champagne Ave. S.(former proposed Acquerello condominium project)
Already zoned for high-density residential uses, the 45,000-square-foot property was listed on the market for $5.6 million and has been conditionally sold, says Bruce Hudson of Coldwell Banker Rhodes.
A separate source says the buyer is a condominium builder currently active in the local market that has built apartments in Ottawa dating back to 1956. However, officials at this development company would only say they would pass along OBJ's request for information to an external public relations company, which did not return the message.
Mr. Hudson says there was a lot of interest in the property, but the asking price made it a difficult fit for some developers.
100 Champagne Ave. S. (Hutchings & Patrick Inc.)
Desk pads and accessories manufacturer Hutchings & Patrick Inc. was acquired by Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Artistic Products LLC earlier this year, according to a spokesperson for the latter firm.
Domicile Developments president John Doran says his residential development company has a purchase agreement for the property and says his company is meeting with the community this week to discuss its redevelopment plans, which include approximately 100 apartments and six townhouses.
"We like the location ... (and) we like to get into neighbourhoods that are emerging," says Mr. Doran.
101 Champagne Ave. S. (Ottawa Humane Society Shelter)
The Humane Society has outgrown its 15,000-square-foot facility, built in 1968, and is currently raising money to construct a new building on Hunt Club Road, between Merivale Road and Prince of Wales Drive.
Depending on the success of its fundraising campaign, the Humane Society plans to relocate by late spring 2011 and sell its Champagne Avenue property for approximately $3 million.
175 Loretta Ave. S. (municipal yard)
The city's traffic signals operation is unlikely to move before 2011, but could be redeveloped once a community design plan is in place and the city's rapid transit plans are finalized, says Dave Donaldson, the city's acting manager of realty initiatives and development.
He says a study, conducted as part of the city's old north-south light rail line plans, concluded the relocation costs far exceeded the value of the land and air rights.
"There will come a time when (traffic signals operations) want to relocate ... but in the next few years, it is not likely to be (a property) the city would make available," says Mr. Donaldson.
Oak Street Complex (Public Works yard)
Health Canada and Public Works occupy the sprawling property between Somerset Street and Gladstone Avenue and will continue to inhabit the office space "for the foreseeable future," says Public Works spokesperson Nathalie Betote Akwa.
However, the warehouse building has structural problems and is currently unsuitable for public use. Ms. Betote Akwa says the department is in the preliminary stages of examining redevelopment options to serve the federal government's long-term office accommodation needs.
Lori Mellor of the Preston Street BIA has been pushing Public Works to include space for a farmers' market in its redevelopment plans, but says department officials will not meet with her, forcing her to solicit the support of local politicians.
She says the area's growing residential population is underserved by retail amenities, especially food stores.
"Why can't (the government) integrate in the community? Why does it have to take up this prime piece of land and (only use it) Monday to Friday, from seven to four?" she asks.
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