After months of waiting for the community eyesore to be demolished, Centretown residents eager for the redevelopment of a property once occupied by the notorious “yellow house” will have to wait two more months before any ground is broken at Gladstone Avenue and Cambridge Street.
Delbrook Homes, which owns lots 740 to 746 Gladstone Ave., recently tore down the two houses occupying the property after obtaining a demolition permit from the City of Ottawa. The company’s plan is to construct six townhouses and a commercial unit at the intersection starting mid-January 2011, according to Delbrook CEO Mehdi Shafiei.
The corner property, which is adjacent to a paramedic post and Cambridge Street Public School, is infamous for a vacant yellow house frequented by drug addicts, prostitutes and vagrants.
Two years ago, property owner Ali Shafiei was told by the city to paint over the vandalism and graffiti that accumulated on the exterior before the building could be torn down. Amazed by this request, the owner’s agent painted the house fluorescent yellow.
Since then, the unit became known in the community as the “yellow house.” It had escaped the wrecking ball until Oct. 13, when Delbrook Homes finally demolished it. So far, reactions from local business owners and community residents to the new plans are largely positive.
“Gladstone Avenue needs help,” says Eric Darwin, president of the Dalhousie Community Association. “This neighbourhood has sort of been skipped by a generation. Each project that goes in makes a huge difference. It becomes a beacon (that’s) going to raise the value and the interest in the neighbourhood.”
However, some neighbours are concerned with the hefty price tag for the new townhouses. Kirk Pappin, who lives across the street, says he would much rather see affordable housing.
Currently, each townhouse unit is slated to have an area of about 102 square metres, an individual garage, and a tentative price of “high $300,000,” says Shafiei.
“They’re overpriced for the market, but the market is changing,” says Darwin. “You have to be realistic. I don’t think a neighbourhood has to remain exclusively a lower-income neighbourhood.”
Some business owners echo this sentiment.
“It’d be nice to have (the area) cleaned up,” says John Eligh, who owns a print shop nearby on Gladstone Avenue. “It’s going to be more people in the neighbourhood who are living there, so more business.”