Want to stake your claim to an enclave before it’s even built? Here are three possibilities.
Former CFB Rockcliffe
The Department of National Defence (DND) established a rifle range here in 1899. It gradually expanded to a 310-acre military base that DND declared surplus in 1984. On an east-end escarpment bounded by Rockcliffe and Aviation parkways, the National Research Council, and the Montfort Hospital, the site has been the subject of much discussion in the intervening years. The Canada Lands Company (CLC), a Crown corporation that now owns the land, held consultations in 2007, but work halted until a native land claim was resolved in 2011. Consultations restarted in 2012, and CLC hopes to submit a community design plan to the city in early 2014. If it’s approved, builders could start buying lots by 2016. Residents of surrounding communities are concerned that the proposed development — which might include up to 11,000 housing units — will create substantial traffic, and a new bridge over the Ottawa River might also throw a wrench in development plans. Stay tuned.
Lansdowne Park
You just may have heard one or two things about this development over the past few years. Minto plans to build two condo towers on the Bank Street edge of the controversial Glebe site: The Rideau beside the Rideau Canal and Frank Clair Stadium and Vibe at the corner of Bank and Holmwood. The units range in size from 582 to 1,292 square feet and are priced from $299,900 to $710,900. Possible tenants of the surrounding commercial development include Whole Foods, the LCBO, and an Empire Theatres complex.
LeBreton Flats
In development longer than many Ottawans have been alive — the federal government bulldozed the original working-class houses here in the 1960s — this site just west of Parliament Hill is slowly evolving into an LEED-certified neighbourhood. Current National Capital Commission (NCC) plans call for a pedestrian-friendly area with 4,000 to 4,500 housing units, along with up to 215,000 square feet of retail, 968,000 square feet of office space, and lots of parkland. The ’hood will also have a light-rail station. Development in some areas is on hold while the NCC finishes cleaning up soil contaminated by old factories, fires, service stations, and snow dumps (that project is due to end later this year). Claridge-built condos on the east side of the neighbourhood are currently reselling for $219,000 to $1,190,000, and new apartments and townhouses are also available.