SOHO Champagne [111 Champagne Ave S] | 66+82m | 22+25f | U/C
 

Twin Tower proposal for SOHO Champange, with townhouse along frontage of Champange Ave, Hickory St, and O-Train Cut.

http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__7UMT1F

If someone would be so kind as to insert images.

Thanks,
Josh

These SOHO deals are popping up all over the place.. nice find.









source: city of ottawa app page..

Very cool... what is also neat is the picture at the very bottom-left, showing translucent outlines for all the other development proposals in the immediate vicinity.

The Preston/Dows Lake area will look very different in 5 years.

Little Italy/Dow's Lake is really starting to have a nice little skyline. All it needs is a little more nightlife and some more people living around there. Throw it some shiny new light-rail and we have as clsoe to perfection as one could get.

That looks really good.

Looks really good! And like bradnixon Little Italy/Dows Lake is going to look very different in the near future.

Especially with this, and maybe 500 Preston (or is that dead at this point)

This was once the Aquaterra (or something like that) site that crashed and burned a few years ago.

Sometimes demolishion is the answer
 

I work at Dows Lake Court (the two attractive buildings at Carling and Champagne). Thankfully this area is changing for the better.

The Preston Square complex is a welcome addition and hopefully there will be more similar developments to come. Nightlife is making small inroads too (Heart & Crown, Gladstone Theatre, and two comedy clubs) and this might improve as well with more people living in the vicinity.

Still, Preston Street has a ways to go in terms of esthetic appeal, the recently completed street reconstruction notwithstanding. Run-down single family dwellings still line much of Preston. The wrecking ball can't come soon enough to rid the street of these eye sores!

In some of the images above, it shows a proposed building on the other side of Champagne/Hickory. What project is that? The new Domicile project?

EDIT: West Side Action Blog confirmed that it's the Domicile project (http://westsideaction.blogspot.com/2...ondo-site.html)

Developers file plans for Little Italy condo towers

Published on February 19th, 2010
Peter Kovessy
Ottawa Business Journal

In another sign of the redevelopment of Little Italy, a condominium developer is asking to rezone a vacant lot so it can build a pair of residential towers overlooking Dow’s Lake.


Mastercraft Starwood purchased the one-acre lot on Champagne Avenue, backing onto the O-Train tracks just north of Carling Avenue, last fall for $5.6 million. The developer has filed a rezoning application to allow it to build a 24-storey tower and a 20-storey tower containing a total of 301 residential units and connected by a podium.

It’s not the first time a condominium building has been proposed for the site. In 2003, the city approved a development application for the 11-storey Acquellero at Dow’s Lake, but the project was ultimately abandoned.

Mastercraft Starwood is also building the 15-storey SoHo Parkway on Parkdale Avenue, between Scott Street and the Ottawa River Parkway, opposite Tunney’s Pasture.

The proposed Champagne Avenue condominiums would be significantly higher than the 15 and 12 storeys requested by Arnon Corp. for its property directly to the south. Fronting Carling Avenue, the site is currently a surface parking lot. Arnon’s rezoning application called for office towers, but a company official said last summer that it could potentially end up being a residential or mixed-use project.

The application is currently before the Ontario Municipal Board, with a prehearing scheduled for March.

Developers note the neighbourhood is well connected to a variety of amenities, such as the Queensway, the increasingly lively Preston Street commercial corridor and natural features like Dow’s Lake and the Experimental Farm.

The area is also poised to become a transit hub when the existing O-Train is converted into a longer north-south rail line. Officials are also considering eventually laying tracks on Carling Avenue.

Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, on the west side of Champagne Avenue, at Hickory Street, the city says an application has been filed for a 12 to 13-storey residential development.

In an interview last November, Domicile Developments president John Doran confirmed his company had a purchase agreement for the property. It currently features a single-storey commercial building that is the former home of desk pad and accessories manufacturer Hutchings & Patrick Inc.

Domicile already has a presence in the neighbourhood with its Merrion Square Norfolk development on nearby Loretta Avenue, at Carling Avenue. The development consists of six blocks of townhouses as well as an eight-storey and 10-storey condominium building.

Mr. Doran said the project has been well received by homebuyers.

"We clearly want another stake in the neighbourhood," Mr. Doran said last fall.

"Preston Street is getting better and better."

http://www.obj.ca/Real-Estate/Reside...condo-towers/1

Siteplan:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2717/...a9dffd_o_d.jpg

It seems a shame that they didn't put their parking ramp off Hickory and keep housing along the main street frontage. In fact, the company should talk to the City and the developer of the property south of Hickory (Domicile) to see if they couldn't make Hickory the ramp to below grade parking for both developments. That way, the townhouses could be built around the entire perimeter. They would just be over the parking entrance off Hickory.

One detail I like that is visible in some of the renderings (although sadly not in the site plan) is the pedestrian bridge connecting Hickory to Adeline.

I agree with you that the ramp should be on Hickory, but they plan to extend hickory across the OTrain tracks so the idea to have that as the ramp to both projects wouldn't work.

(And the project south of Hickory is the Arnon project - http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=171229 - not the domicile project - that one's across Champagne)

Ya that's a big plus! Provides a much easier access to both Preston st and the OTrain.

Is it part of this project, or is the city doing it?

I'm really excited about,it's great for the area and I'll be able to see it rise from my bedroom window.

Thanks for the correction on the developer.

I am assuming that the bridge crossing the O-Train line is to be a pedestrian bridge only - no vehicles. If pedestrian sidewalks remained at grade on both sides of Hickory, the road portion of Hickory could drop to provide a below grade access to both properties. The turns from Hickory onto the neighbouring properties would be under the level of the sidewalks as they come together to cross the pedestrian bridge. I would suggest that that section of Hickory would become a private road.

You're right it's pedestrian only. Thanks for pointing that out, its an important point.

You're right then, with it being pedestrian only, your idea could definitely work. And it's a good idea!

And don't forget Pub Italia!

Looking at the Arnon plan, I see that there is a chunk of land owned by Sunoco which could be a problem for underground parking on the Arnon side. I guess ramping Hickory down won't work. Of course that wouldn't stop SOHO from flipping their plan diagonally and having the parking come in off of Hickory. Do you think that the parking is along the north side as a shield for the adjoining property (Humain Society)?

With respect to Arnon, it looks as if they are going cheap and storing cars on the surface. They should simply buy the Sunoco land (which I assume is a Brownfield), get a Brownfield Clean-up grant from the City, and then build a third tower. Their parking could go underground and ramping Hickory would again work. I get frustrated with the number of brownfields left vacant in this city.