Plans unveiled for downtown Oshawa Clinic property

Oshawa councillors and the public got their first official look at the redevelopment of the Oshawa Clinic property on the east side of downtown Monday, with building plans unveiled for a project that will see three residential towers towering as high as 37 storeys and containing 1,308 apartment units.

The application, submitted at Monday’s Economic and Development Services Committee meeting by A.J. Clarke and Associates, on behalf of property owners Atria Developments, is for a mixed-use project that will also include nearly 15,000 square feet of commercial space and preserve a portion of the original 1948 ivy-covered medical clinic, which has been awarded a heritage designation.

The preserved part will be incorporated into the four-storey podium proposed for the site.

“It’s a really dynamic look,” said Oshawa Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, who chairs the committee. “It’s really exciting to see what they’re bringing to the site.”

Parking and increased traffic – identified during the consultation process as potential issues – were addressed in the report to committee.

Parking will be covered by a three-level underground parking lot, with the 831 underground parking spaces being provided actually exceeding the zoning requirement for the property.

A transportation engineering consulting firm hired by the applicant determined that traffic generated by the development “can be accommodated by the existing street system and will not have adverse impacts on the study intersections.”

The project has been dubbed ‘Centra’ by Atria but that working title was absent from the plans presented at committee by A.J. Clarke and Associates.

Atria also owns the lands immediately to the east of the clinic site across Charles Street and plan to develop a 25-storey student housing project containing 408 apartment units and more than 35,000 square feet of commercial space.

“That’s going to be exciting as well,” Marimpietri said.

The councillor also cited the Medallion project south of the clinic at Charles Street and Bruce Street – some 4,000 units are expected when it’s totally built out – as evidence of the changing face of Oshawa’s downtown east side.

“We hope to see a lot of cranes in the sky sooner rather than later,” he said. “We have the whole package coming to our downtown for maybe the first time ever.”