The Andaz Hotel has received the green light to build a 17-storey addition beside its current hotel in Ottawa’s ByWard Market. Councillors on the planning and housing committee approved an amendment to the Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw for the 17-storey addition with 154 rooms on York Street, east of the Andaz Hotel on Dalhousie Street. Claridge Homes had originally proposed a 16-storey addition next to the current Andaz Hotel in 2023 but proposed an additional storey. “The proposal results in the removal of a vacant lot in the ByWard Market Heritage Conservation District and building design that will make a positive contribution to the York Streetscape,” staff said. “This addition will facilitate the construction of new hotel accommodations, which, in turn, will help support the economic development and tourism goals in the ByWard Market.” According to Claridge Homes, the proposed hotel expansion would consist of a three-storey podium base, followed by a 14-storey hotel tower with 154 hotel rooms setback nine metres from the York Street property line. The three-storey base would include the hotel entrance and lobby, a restaurant, ballroom and assembly rooms. There would be four levels of underground parking shared with a new 22-storey residential building on George Street. The addition would replace a surface parking lot at 116 York Street and a former two-storey red-brick building constructed circa 1950 by the Union Saint-Joseph du Canada organization. “The footprint of the new addition will cover the entirety of the resulting combined lots and will abut the adjacent hotel via a three-storey section clad in grey-coloured spandrel glass and translucent glazing; this section will be slightly set in from the existing hotel and the redbrick volume and will serve as the entrance to the lobby of the new section of the hotel,” staff said. The Built Heritage Committee approved heritage permits to alter the property designated under the Ontario Heritage Act last week.
