Lépine’s 1400-unit Orléans rental apartment community will help reduce the demand for hundreds of acres of green space
Lépine Apartments, among the region’s most respected builders of luxury rental units, are proposing a new development in south Orléans that company president Francis Lépine says will provide residents with a unique and competitive housing option in an ever-growing community.
Located at 3484-3490 Innes Road on the site of an abandoned driving range, the 1,400-unit mid- to highrise complex with full underground parking and abovegrade landscaping would help mitigate the demand for hundreds of acres of new land while providing attractive and much-needed housing accommodations.
With the bulk of Lépine residents typically migrating from within a five kilometre radius of the site, Lépine says the complex would gentrify the area and open up existing housing stock for the constant influx of new families looking to buy in the region.
Lépine properties are designed with empty nesters, retirees and young up-andcomers in mind — folks who don’t want, have the need, or simply aren’t ready to invest in owning a house.
With the city’s projected growth of over 400,000 people in the next couple of decades, Orléans, a predominantly residential suburb, will expand like all areas. The City of Ottawa is opening new land for development in previously undeveloped farmland areas or cutting down forests. Lépine contends his project would heavily outweigh the alternative environmental impact and financially optimize the efficiency of existing municipal services in the area.
“Our market will be all of Orléans and the surrounding area,” he said. “As people sell their homes to move to our apartments, it recycles the existing housing stock. Communities that were built a generation ago now become available to younger families who can afford to buy these homes in well-established communities.” The new families tend to renovate and upgrade these houses, creating ready-made clientele for local businesses.
Lépine projects in Kanata have had a major impact on reinvigorating local communities such as Beaverbrook, Kanata Lakes and Stittsville. In Overbrook, Lépine completed their third project, having very positive impacts on Vanier. The builder is doing similar good work in areas such as Barrhaven with its current Howard Grant project.
“The infrastructure is already there,” Lépine notes. “For the municipality, it means no additional police force, emergency ambulance and fire department requirements. The water services as well as the sanitary and storm sewers are already under the existing roadways so there is very little demand on infrastructure expansion. This type of development is beneficial to established communities.”
This type of development is beneficial to established communities.
FRANCIS LÉPINE
About 20 per cent of all new construction costs goes to taxes and government fees in one form or another. In the case of Lépine’s proposed Orléans development, this includes at least $20 million in development charges to the community for the City to spend. That’s new money for community projects, maintaining equipment, facilities and parks. It should improve the quality of life in the community, especially when you consider that in Ottawa it is the builder that constructs most of the required roadways, signal lights and pays the new infrastructure costs on any new projects.
Lépine distinguishes itself by offering value for money in a luxury environment that in many of its buildings includes park-like gardens, fitness centres, pools, libraries and recreation rooms. Client parking is tucked away underground.
Lépine units are quality-built from the inside out, with emphasis on durable and non-combustible concrete structures, heavy insulation and reliable electromechanical services that far exceed standards. The buildings themselves place a premium on common areas and community atmosphere and are designed for the Canadian climate.
Despite these benefits and the challenges of new construction and their related costs, Lépine manages to keep rental rates to a reasonable minimum, with negotiable extended options that provide stability and peace of mind.
Middle-agers and retirees, often with a nest egg from the sale of a longtime home, benefit from the predictability of renting and are not subject to fluctuating markets, interest rates and taxes.
“With strict discipline and design effectiveness we’ve been able to manage our price point to be able to cater to the clientele that I define as middle-class Canada, which is to say the unionized career labour force and its equivalent,” says Lépine. “By the way, the upper 20 per cent of society does not rent or is very unlikely to rent.
“Contrary to what people think, our product is not necessarily for the elite.”
Lépine’s proposed Orléans development is located away from the coming LRT line, partly because in the region running along the lower portion of the Ottawa Valley against Highway 17 and St. Joseph Boulevard, the soils mostly consist of glacial deposits of silty soft clay of depths up to 50 metres to bedrock. These conditions greatly escalate foundation costs before the actual above-ground part of the building even emerges.
Lépine opted for the Innes plateau, where in some locations the bedrock is shallower and provides proper conditions for mid-rise and highrise concrete buildings.
Lépine also notes that the cost of land around LRT stations has spiked to what he describes as “unrealistic levels,” making the feasibility of projects like his “next to impossible.” The land Lépine is proposing for development was originally designated for an industrial park and is now mostly slated for low-density residential development, contradicting intensification objectives. Lépine adds that he is disappointed that environmentalists do not support such development applications.
To support the new Lépine development in Orléans, please contact the City of Ottawa Planning Committee by emailing THIS STORY WAS CREATED BY CONTENT WORKS, POSTMEDIA’S COMMERCIAL CONTENT DIVISION,
ON BEHALF OF LÉPINE APARTMENTS.