Ottawa's downtown skyline is about to start changing at the site of the old Greyhound bus terminal, with developer Brigil saying construction on its long-planned highrise project will start "very shortly."
The site and the plan
The project sits on a city block fronting Catherine Street and Arlington Avenue between Kent and Lyon streets, the former home of the Greyhound terminal. Brigil's first tower will be 32 storeys with about 420 rental apartments.
The project already has the green light. It got city council approval in 2024, and Jessy Desjardins, Brigil's chief product and brand officer, said the company has spent the time since refining details before moving ahead. "We had a few things that we wanted to improve on the project," Desjardins said. Brigil hasn't laid out a full construction timeline yet, but Desjardins said more details are coming later this fall.
What's changing from the original approval
One of the more notable shifts is around parking. Brigil's plan now offers just 360 parking spaces for residents, less than half of what the previous zoning bylaw required, paired with nearly 1,200 bicycle spaces.
The first tower will also include 17,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, with more retail planned along Arlington Avenue that Brigil hopes will bring in new restaurants and businesses to that stretch of Centretown.
A new public park
Brigil has also picked up the parking lot beside Whalesbone Catering Co. at the corner of Arlington Avenue and Kent Street, and plans to turn it into a public park that will be handed over to the city.
Fitting into Centretown's character
Desjardins said the design work has focused on tying the towers into the neighbourhood's existing look. "Centretown has a very strong, beautiful red-brick history with Bank Street having really nice, more traditional architecture," he said. "We spent a lot of time refining those elements on the project." That's a notable design choice for a trio of towers reaching up to 36 storeys, an attempt to root a major highrise development in the low-rise brick character that defines much of Centretown's streetscape.
Why it matters for Ottawa
Sources: Ottawa Business Journal
