1460 Riverside Dr | ?m | 12+18 | Proposed

[rocketphish]

The NCC, in collaboration with the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC), is seeking a proponent for the construction of residential housing at 1460 Riverside Drive, near Alta Vista Drive in Ottawa.

The development land for lease is a vacant lot of 0.89 ha and has the potential for over 220 housing units in an urban living environment focused on active transportation.

Its strategic location near the downtown core, close to public transit networks and Hurdman station, universities, retail, hospitals and green spaces along the Rideau River, promises an attractive living environment for future residents.

The zoning is focused on transit-oriented development; this site will thus meet the growing need for housing near downtown Ottawa while creating a vibrant and well-connected community.

This business opportunity at 1460 Riverside Drive is open to all Canadian proponents in the construction, investment and real estate industries. Play a key role in improving housing access in the National Capital Region while receiving solid institutional and financial support.

The NCC-owned property is being offered for lease in collaboration with the CMHC as part of the Federal Lands Initiative, which aims to create innovative housing for Canadians. The property is part of the Canada Public Land Bank, an initiative that makes public land available for housing construction. The NCC is committed to supporting the Government of Canada’s efforts to identify underutilized land that can be developed to increase housing availability, including affordable housing, in the National Capital Region.



https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/business/1460-riverside-drive

[rocketphish]

Windmill Development Group eyes growing pipeline with new CEO Reeds at the helm

David Sali, OBJ
June 3, 2026

<snip>

In Ottawa, meanwhile, Windmill is planning to construct two rental apartment complexes of 12 and 18 storeys out of mass timber on a two-acre parcel of land owned by the National Capital Commission at 1460 Riverside Dr., near Alta Vista Drive. Windmill will serve as development manager for the project, which is expected to include 400 residential units and would be the largest mass timber development in Canada, according to Westeinde.

One of Windmill’s trademarks is its willingness to bring in other partners that have expertise in areas such as sustainable development and affordable housing. To that end, one of the buildings on Riverside Drive will be owned by Nesting Ground, an Ottawa-based non-profit corporation that works with community housing organizations and private developers to build affordable housing, while the other building will be owned by Ottawa Community Housing. In addition, B.C.-based Intelligent City, which specializes in pre-fabricated urban housing using digital design, robotics and other advanced techniques, will provide many of the components for the project. Intelligent City also collaborated with Windmill on the mass timber development in Toronto, manufacturing and installing infrastructure such as columns and parapets. As construction costs have skyrocketed over the past few years, it’s become more important for developers to find partners who can share the burden and bring their own strengths to each project, Reeds said. “We're fortunate that we've always approached those relationships and partnerships as a high priority,” he added. “For the next quite a few years, the real estate industry needs these partnership strategies and collaboration, and it's new for most groups. We're fortunate that we've been playing in that space for a long time. So a lot of it comes naturally, but it really requires a lot of innovative thinking and bringing all the different groups together. “What has allowed us to be successful in a lot of these partnerships is just being able to pause and accept that the way things used to be doesn't necessarily mean that is how it has to be going forward. And the more you can challenge that and think openly about it, the more you can help solve those problems and try to figure out how those different groups can work together to get the outcomes that we need.” While mass timber construction is not widely used in multi-residential projects, Reeds and Westeinde say it’s poised to move into the mainstream as the technology evolves and becomes more affordable. Building codes now allow timber buildings of up to 30 storeys, Reeds noted, adding wood lends itself well to modular construction — an increasingly popular approach to development in which various components of a building’s structure, such as columns and floor cassettes, are manufactured in mass quantities off-site and assembled later. Modular construction is more efficient, Westeinde explained, estimating it can shorten timelines on a typical multi-residential project by three to four months.

“The more you're able to kind of build in a controlled environment, the more you can focus on how you can get your cost curves down, versus sort of always being a piecemeal (construction process) on every site,” he said.

<snip>

https://obj.ca/windmill-development-group-appoints-reeds-ceo/

[SL123]

A Mass Timber Project!!!! Very Interesting, cant wait to see renderings for it

[ponyboycurtis]

Originally Posted by SL123

A Mass Timber Project!!!! Very Interesting, cant wait to see renderings for it

That would be a first for Ottawa. Seems like a very interesting project on the back end of things reading the article.

Building codes now allow for mass timber up to 30 floors? Wild.

[skyscraperaccount]

Another article https://ontarioconstructionnews.com/ncc-...for-riverside-affordable-housing-project

NCC and Nesting Ground partnership finalize 99-year lease for Riverside affordable housing project - Ontario Construction News
Robin MacLennan, Editor, Ontario Construction News
3–4 minutes

Ontario Construction News staff writer

OTTAWA – The National Capital Commission has finalized a long-term lease agreement with Nesting Ground and Ottawa Community Housing (OCH) to transform a vacant 0.89-hectare federal site into a transit-oriented affordable housing hub.

The agreement provides a leasehold interest of up to 99 years for the property at 1460 Riverside Dr. and represents a foundational project under the federal Lands for Homes strategy. The development is being led by Nesting Ground in a strategic partnership with Windmill Developments and OCH.

The project is slated to deliver a minimum of 220 residential units near the Hurdman LRT station. Under the terms of the federal agreement, at least 30 per cent of the units must remain at below-market rents for the full century-long duration of the lease.

The site is currently zoned as Transit-Oriented Development, a designation that permits significant vertical density and eliminates traditional minimum parking requirements to encourage public transit use.

According to January 2026 filings with the Canadian Impact Assessment Registry, the construction scope includes soil remediation and site preparation on the vacant urban lot prior to excavation. Design specifications, guided by Nesting Ground’s sustainability focus and Windmill’s development expertise, are intended to meet or exceed federal net-zero ready standards. This includes high-performance building envelopes and integrated municipal servicing upgrades to support the high-density residential load.

While a final budget has not been publicly released, industry benchmarks for mid-to-high-rise construction in the Ottawa market place the estimated hard costs between $95 million and $120 million. The project is moving through a streamlined approvals process following a February 2026 framework agreement between the City of Ottawa and the NCC aimed at reducing planning delays.

Federal authorities and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation initiated a final project assessment earlier this year. The development team is currently finalizing the site plan for municipal submission. Major structural construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in late 2026, with a projected occupancy window for 2028.

By utilizing a 99-year lease rather than a land sale, the NCC ensures the property remains a public asset while providing the development partners with the long-term security required to secure low-interest financing through the federal Affordable Housing Fund.

The Riverside project is the first of 10 NCC properties listed in the Canada Public Land Bank, which federal officials estimate could eventually yield nearly 7,600 new units across the capital region.

[urbanforest]

I'd like to see them do the rest of the Hurdman lands, too. Hopefully in coordination with whatever RoW Alto needs

[CastlesintheSky]

Wow, construction to start by the end of 2026. Love it.
Let's get things built faster in Ottawa!