Ottawa's newest tallest building planned overlooking Dow's Lake and Little Italy

OTTAWA -

One of Ottawa's tallest buildings could soon be overlooking Little Italy, Dow's Lake and the new home for Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus.

Coun. Riley Brockington announced on Twitter a plan has been submitted to build Ottawa's tallest tower at 829 Carling Ave., at Preston Street. The site is the current location of a CIBC branch.

The 60-storey tower would be built across the street from the Claridge Icon building at 505 Preston Street, which has 45-storeys.

"I like the idea of two podiums at the end of the street," said Joe Cotroneo, owner of Pub Italia.

"Carling and Preston is the western gateway to the city of Ottawa. With two kinds of architectural features at that end of the street, I think that would look great."

Brockington says Ottawa's Planning Department has notified the public of an Official Plan amendment, zoning and site plan application to build the 459-unit tower. There would be 385 parking spots for vehicles, and 230 spots for bicycles.

The new $2.8 billion Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus will be built on federal land between Dow's Lake and the Central Experimental Farm.

Coun. Catherine McKenney is worried about the increased traffic caused by the new high-rise buildings and the hospital.

"It’s in an area that's under intense intensification."

The Somerset Councillor says the city needs to be addressing amenities, like grocery stores, when building new housing..

"As a city we really have to start thinking about amenities for people as we put them all in one area," said McKenney.

Some residents are excited about the new buildings coming to the neighbourhood.

"Ottawa is full of government towers, government buildings that are sort of on the plain and simple side," said Marc Grenier, a Hintonburg resident. "And those are going to be two beautiful bookend towers.

The new north-south Light Rail Transit line will be built just steps from the towers.

"People need to be able to use the LRT. The LRT runs right by here," said Grenier. "That’s going to be essential to make this street and all of its infrastructure work."