The Carney government is starting work on redeveloping the former federal study centre on Heron Road as it looks to build 1,100 housing units on the site.
The federal government announced Wednesday the new Build Canada Homes agency is seeking requests for qualifications for the Alta Vista area property, mapping out plans to build several “medium-density, multi-family buildings,” expected to range from three to nine storeys in height.
At least 40 per cent of the units will be priced at below-market value.
“By transforming federal lands into vibrant, inclusive communities, we’re not just building homes, we’re building opportunity, ” said Minister of National Defence and Ottawa South MP David McGuinty.
The 1495 Heron Road property has been vacant since 2014. It began life as a Catholic education centre in the 1960s.
Build Canada Homes has been tasked with building affordable housing at scale on federal public lands, using factory-built homes that allow for quick construction.
Proponents interested in participating in Heron Road redevelopment are being asked to demonstrate experience and innovation in modern construction such as prefabrication, modular, and mass timber methods. Request for qualifications to select design-build teams will close on Dec. 22, and selected proponents will proceed to the request for proposals stage in early 2026. Proponents selected will be required to prioritize sourcing Canadian materials for construction.
The Ottawa redevelopment was part of a broader government announcement on building 4,000 homes on Canada Lands Company sites in several cities across Canada, including Dartmouth, Longueuil, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
In August, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report stating that an estimated 2.5 million homes are expected to be built over the next 10 years — 700,000 homes shy of the required 3.2 million needed to close the housing gap in Canada. That does not fully take into account affordability considerations: the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, in contrast, predicted in a June report that 5.3 million units would need building over that same 10 year period to achieve target housing affordability levels.
