Christ Church Anglican Cathedral is finally making headway in the long-planned redevelopment of its property adjacent to the downtown church.
The church owns the west half of the block between Sparks and Queen streets and says it’s hoping to use the development of the area to maintain the cathedral.
Maintenance of the church’s buildings has resulted in a debt in excess of $350,000.
The current plan, called the Cathedral Hill project, includes the building of a new residential condo tower, a 12-storey office tower, several townhouses and a new parish hall. The condo tower is expected to be 15-17 storeys – the same height as other buildings in the area.
The cathedral itself is 178 years old and it’s estimated that revenue from the development will be enough to pay for its maintenance, as well as some of its programs, for the next 200 years.
David Caulfeild, chairman of the joint venture between the cathedral and the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, says the church has been considering this for some time.
“The cathedral has been considering the idea of development since the early 1980s but for a variety of reasons there just was no viable plan that seemed to work.”
Plans for the current development began in late 2005.
“At that time our committee came to the realization if this development were to succeed it had to be with the Diocese of Ottawa,” explains Caulfeild.
Members of the church association and their consultants from Windmill Development Group presented an informal proposal to the city’s heritage advisory committee in November.
“This proposal is still in the pre-consultation phase,” says city spokeswoman Jocelyn Turner. She added that there has been no formal application yet and the exact plans for the new development are still being decided.
Project manager Scott Demark says it’s still early days.
“The rezoning process with the city has begun which is a long six- to eight-month process,” says Demark.
“Reactions so far from Centretown citizens and the Dalhousie citizens group haven’t shown a lot of opposition. We’re had good and on-going conversations with the city about the proposal.”
Caulfeild is optimistic that the developments will also improve the vitality of the block and says that the revenue will mean the cathedral is better able to fulfil its social objectives within the community.
“We see that by having a residential condominium development there will be a number of retirees who will want to spend some time in various activities with the cathedral. We see that in terms of our open door to the community there will be some real opportunities.”
The design stage will continue through January and February at which point the church and Windmill Development Group will submit for a site plan approval.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2012.