A Toronto company that helped to develop the Distillery District there has joined forces with Ottawa’s Windmill Development Group to remake the Domtar lands.
Dream Development brings its experience on the Distillery District and other major projects — and capital — to what is expected to be a billion-dollar project to turn the post-industrial lands straddling the Ottawa River into a green, mixed-use community.
Jason Lester, senior vice-president of urban development at Dream, said Thursday that his company has been involved on the project for the past few months.
Each company brings strengths to the project whose results, he predicted, will “exceed expectations.” Construction, he said, is unlikely to begin before 2015. The first step is getting zoning approvals from Ottawa and Gatineau.
Windmill, which has made a name as a green developer, also announced this week that the project will be part of the Target Cities initiative that includes sustainable developments in Atlanta, Boston, Cambridge, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The program is part of the Clinton Global Initiative to promote sustainable development.
The aim of the initiative is to “amplify and accelerate district-scale community regeneration and create replicable models for next-generation urban revitalization,” said a Windmill spokesman.
Rodney Wilts, a partner at Windmill Development, said the project will “put Ottawa on the map” for sustainable development.
“Our plans include the preservation of heritage buildings, the creation of parks and public access to the waterfront, including the breathtaking Chaudière Falls, fenced off for over 100 years,” said Wilts.
The project is expected to include a variety of housing, retail, restaurants and cafés along the water and business space in heritage buildings. It will allow for the opening of public green space and access to the river in a part of the city that few residents have ever seen.
