A village called Gladstone coming to Little Italy

A vibrant urban village will sprout up in Little Italy in the coming years, with a multimillion-dollar mixed-use development project spearheaded by the Ottawa Community Housing Corp.

Gladstone Village will offer mixed-income housing, retail, commercial and green spaces, as well as a French language elementary school.

The announcement was made Wednesday at the site of the 7.26-acre property — a large swath of green space that runs along Gladstone Avenue between Preston Street to the east and the future light rail Trillium line to the west.

OCH is working in partnership with the City of Ottawa and Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario, the federal government and province to complete the plan. The first step involved the purchase of the federal land from Canada Lands Company for $7 million.

“I’m confident that this is going to be a flagship project in demonstrating how to build complete communities, how to build vibrant, healthy and sustainable communities right in the core of the city,” said Yasir Naqvi, Ottawa Centre MPP and attorney general of Ontario.

“And we know many cities around the world and in Canada struggle with how to rejuvenate the downtown core ... a lot of us have been talking about it, looking at this land, salivating after this land, and saying, ‘How can we develop this? How can we optimize the O -Train or the (LRT) Trillium line that passes by here?’ ”

Faced with aging properties — averaging more than 45 years old, and some up to 100 — the OCH says Gladstone Village will help to renew its portfolio with more energy-efficient properties for residents, saving on utility and maintenance costs.

The project will include social and affordable-housing rental units, as well as market-rent housing, that will include both highrise and low-rise buildings, commercial and retail space and green space. The village will be home to a couple of thousand residents.

Asked about the details of the project, OCH chief executive Stéphane Giguère said the final community design plan will be solidified once the public consultations with the community and stakeholders are complete.

CEPEO president Linda Savard confirmed the board will be asking the province for $12 million to build the elementary school that will accommodate 389 students from daycare to Grade 6.