Feds to convert government-owned properties in Ottawa into 1,600 new homes

The federal government announced it will be converting federal properties in Ottawa into over 1,600 new homes across the city.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos and President of the Treasury Board Anita Anand made the announcement in a press conference Tuesday.

Federal properties in the city will be repurposed to 307 homes at Wateridge Village on former CFB Rockcliffe.

Another 600 homes on Carling Avenue and 710 homes on Booth Street will be built, which will include 221 affordable homes.

Wateridge Village is a 125.5-hectare site formerly home to Canadian Forces Base Rockcliffe. The base was primarily dedicated to military housing before being decommissioned in 1994.

“We are focused on building more homes, faster—and by transforming more federal land into homes for Canadians, today’s announcement is helping to do exactly that," Freeland said.

Six surplus federal properties across Canada will be developed into over 2,800 new homes in Calgary, Edmonton, St. John's and Ottawa.

Freeland said the homes will be developed by the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation specializing in real estate development and attractions management.

The government said the Crown corporation is on-track to support the construction of more than 29,200 homes across the country in six years.

The City of Ottawa had been looking for ways to redevelop government properties, many of which have sat vacant since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Converting office space into apartments was identified as one of the ways the city could reach its goal of 151,000 new homes by 2031.

Ottawa has an overall office vacancy rate of 13.6 per cent, according to the Q3 2023 Ottawa Office Figures by CBRE. That includes a 14.2 per cent vacancy rate downtown. The latest data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) earmarks Ottawa's residential vacancy rate at 2.1 per cent.

In the last 10 years, city staff say more than 700 residential units were created through converting old office buildings into housing. More than 900 units were created by converting non-residential buildings like old places of worship and hotels into homes.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Ted Raymond