Developer boosts number of planned condos

Pair of 14-storey buildings to include 273 units, up from 200

A local developer who’s proposing two new condo buildings on Lansdowne Street West says he’s revised his plans: he’s going to go much taller and include double the number of condos than originally expected.

Paul Dietrich, the owner of Parkview Homes, wants to put the two buildings on vacant land he owns at 1633 Lansdowne St., just west of Spillsbury Dr. (near Holiday Ford, on the same side of the street).

He told The Examiner in October he was considering a fivestorey and a six-storey building, with a total of 100 residential units (a mix of apartments and condos).

He also said then that he was prepared to build as tall as 10 storeys per building, with 200 units in total.

But on Wednesday he said he’s revised the plan: now he wants to build a pair of 14-storey buildings, with 273 units (all condominiums).

“This is based purely on the demand we’re seeing in the marketplace now,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Dietrich says he’s planning to apply for a rezoning before city

‘‘ This is purely based on the demand we’re seeing in the marketplace now.” PAUL DIETRICH Parkview Home owner

council in the spring or summer of 2019 (the land is zoned commercial). He expects construction to take three or four years.

It’s going to cost somewhere between $70 million and $80 million to put up the buildings, he said – up from $35 million, if he’d gone with his early concept of a five-storey and six-storey building.

He said he’s revised his plans in response to the housing shortage.

Peterborough’s apartment vacancy rate has been stuck at one per cent, just as the average price of a singlefamily house has skyrocketed to a record high of $427,703.

Dietrich said he thinks condos are needed because they will be affordable to those who want to move out of apartments but can’t afford a single-family home.

He’s the same developer who plans to tear down the former Pig’s Ear Tavern downtown and put a new apartment building on the property.

He also bought the former cole Monseigneur-Jamot on Romaine St., and is planning to put 44 condos there.

Those projects will take shape later, he said - the Lansdowne development is his priority.