Construction on a new five-storey, 162-unit apartment building on Barrie Road could begin this spring.
Orillia’s senior planner, Jill Lewis, said the site plan agreement and plans have been finalized for the project at 75 Barrie Rd.
There is some legal work related to easements and road widening that must be completed, however, before the “the city will be in a position to execute the site plan agreement.”
Because of the complexity of that outstanding legal work, “it is difficult to estimate” when the agreement will be finalized.
However, Solete Residential Inc. is in the process of preparing their building permit application.
The apartment building will have 104 parking spaces; 23 of those will be allocated to visitor parking.
The developer is also incorporating a “trailhead plaza” at the southeast corner of the property adjacent to the city’s multi-use trail and Andrew Street South.
That plaza - which will include a hardscaped area with benches, a shade structure, a bicycle repair station, a piece of fitness equipment and wayfinding signage - is a requirement of the height bonusing bylaw.
Essentially, the city allowed the height of the building to be increased from four to five storeys in exchange for the creation of the trailhead plaza/amenities.
This apartment building represents the third and final phase of development on this stretch of Barrie Road that was once home to a sprawling 180,000-square-foot factory known as Fahralloy and, later, Fahramet.
Moe Zadeh bought the four acre-property in 2004 from the municipality after it seized the property due to unpaid taxes.
The Toronto developer spent millions of dollars to clean up the former industrial land and to satisfy the then Ministry of the Environment.
In 2007, he opened a 60-unit apartment building in which 45 of the units qualified for funding under the federal/provincial affordable-housing program; that means rent was set at or below average market rent, as calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
A second 103-unit apartment complex was completed in 2010. The federal and provincial governments contributed $9.2 million to fund 77 units to accommodate low-income seniors and the disabled.
Zadeh and his company invested about $19 million of its own money in the first two phases.
This final phase does not include funding to create affordable housing units.
“It is not required that there be affordable units, but he has said he will try to include some if possible,” said Lewis.
Once construction is complete, the three buildings will have a total of more than 320 units on the site.
