Is Another Huge New Condo Coming to Downtown Burlington?

Just when people are letting the idea of one downtown high rise condo coming across from Burlington City Hall

Just when people are letting the idea of one downtown high rise condo coming across from Burlington City Hall, another one is getting ready to join it right next door.

But will it be approved?

This latest development application, from Reserve Properties Ltd., is for a 24-storey condo at 409 Brant St., at the southeast corner of James and Brant streets.

The purpose of the application is to amend the Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw to permit a 24-storey building, including 23  residential storeys and a one-storey rooftop amenity area. 

The proposed building would include:

• 597 square metres of ground floor commercial and 227 residential units

• five levels of underground parking

• Car access from John Street

• Commercial units with front windows facing onto Brant Street, James Street and John Street.

According to this blog post from Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward the proposal calls for incorporating the Elizabeth Interiors site up to Kelly’s Bake Shoppe, plus the Albert L. Schmid Jeweller, Watch and Clockmaker building facing John Street into the design. The site currently permits four storeys, up to eight with community benefits.

Burlington’s proposed new draft Official Plan, or OP, proposes 17 storeys. However, until Halton Region approves the city’s new OP, the existing OP is in force and effect. The Regional review of the city’s OP is 12-18 months away.

Meed Ward, in one of those “I told you so” moments, said at the time of the first approval of the condo going up across City Hall at the northeast corner of Brant and James that it would set a precedent for future applications that wouldn’t conform either to the existing Official Plan or proposed new Official Plan. In just three months, those concerns have now been realized with this new development application, according to the councillor.

This is the landscape plan taken from one of the reports:

And this picture below shows the building with planned underground parking:

As of this writing, no neighbourhood public meetings have been yet scheduled, but halton.insauga.com will keep an eye on this development application as things move forward.

But it looks like the move towards creating more downtown densification in this mid-sized Canadian city will continue despite local observations from elected representatives and residents. 

What do you think of the latest proposed high-rise condo in downtown Burlington?