Minto beat bids for shovel-ready 212-acres in Ottawa
May 25, 2022
Courtesy CBRE
Ottawa-based Minto Group beat out several competing bids to acquire 212 acres in suburban Ottawa that were already approved for development.
Minto purchased the site for $245 million from the DelZotto family, which owns Tridel development company of Toronto. The DelZotto family owned the land—straddling the west-end districts of Stittsville and Kanata—for 50 years.
The draft plan allows for a significant mixed-use development with upwards of 2,755 housing units, plus commercial and retail space on the site.
According to executive vice-president Lauren White, CBRE Land Services Group began marketing the site as of fall 2021 and had a firm deal in place in December. The transaction closed in April 2022.
“It’s rare for a piece of land of this size to come on the market with draft plan approval in play,” Brent Strachan, president of Minto’s Ottawa division, told the Real Estate News Exchange.
Strachan said the $245-million price tag is indicative of the constrained supply of developable land around Ottawa and the strength of the market.
The site attracted plenty of attention because of the buoyancy of the Ottawa market and the growing demand around Canada’s capital, according to CBRE.
Ottawa had Canada’s second-highest rate of housing starts in 2021 at 84 starts per 100,000 people, according to Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp.
Minto said the first phase of construction should go on sale in early 2023. The site can provide “single-family homes through to high-rises, and literally everything in between,” according to Strachan.
The first phase will feature single-family homes and townhomes. The second phase will introduce ground-oriented home office residences.
CBRE Ottawa senior vice-president Erik Falardeau said there’s strong interest in all types of land around the city.
