Turn Group has acquired an almost three-acre parking lot at 299 Carling Ave. in Ottawa’s growing Little Italy neighbourhood for $21 million from Canada Lands Company, where there are plans for a 600,000-square-foot mixed-use development of four residential towers with approximately 750 units.

It's the latest transaction for a new Calgary-based company which is establishing a pipeline of developments potentially valued at $1.5 billion, chief executive officer Ash Mahmoud told RENX in an interview.

“They had very specific requirements about affordability, which we're going to exceed by far,” Mahmoud said of the existing plans for the Ottawa property. “They (the former owner) had some mass designs, which we will maintain, but with a different perspective and more mixed use.”

Arcadis living practice group manager Jan Steingahs and Mahmoud have a working relationship going back a number of years, so Arcadis has been appointed lead architect and consultant for the project. It will oversee all design deliverables, including architecture, interior design, building information modelling services and landscape architecture. It will also deliver civil, traffic and planning services. 

“We are North America's largest multifamily architect,” Steingahs told RENX during the same interview. “That's one of the reasons why Ash wanted to work with us.”

What 299 Carling will offer

Canada Lands Company is responsible for creating an adjacent half-acre park, which is already underway.

“We're connecting to the park with our landscape on the site so it becomes a really holistic thing and it's not an inward-looking site,” Steingahs said.

The four towers will range from 13 to 30 storeys on the site, which is in close proximity to an O-Train light rail transit stop, Dow’s Lake, the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus and the neighbourhood’s cultural, culinary and retail amenities.

Three of the towers are to be connected via a single podium and offer underground parking and amenities. There will also be a grocery store of approximately 15,000 square feet and additional retail and medical office space.

The two largest towers are to have market rental units while the third is to include approximately 135 affordable rental units.

“We're trying to find an affordable housing operator to partner with,” Mahmoud said.

The towers will feature living facades, green roofs and natural materials.

Part of the site, and one of the four towers, is in the process of being sold to a multifamily owner/operator which focuses on active living for residents aged 55-and-up. The buyer hasn't been revealed. 

“It's more a wellness offering than anything else, so it's not medically-driven,” Steingahs said. “You don't have nurses on staff and it's not assisted living.”

Zoning is already in place, but site plan approval and permitting are still needed. Soil remediation work should begin this fall and construction is expected to start in the spring or summer of 2027.

Turn Group is less than a year old

Mahmoud was president of Calgary-based Cairo Development Ltd. for more than seven years before founding Turn Group last July. He worked in construction and development in Qatar and United Arab Emirates before moving to Calgary, where he had earlier roles as project manager for Northern Property REIT and managing director for Strategic Builders Inc., which is part of Strategic Group.

“We did over 3,000 units between construction management and development services,” Mahmoud said of his previous company. 

Turn Group has offices in Calgary and Ottawa and those two cities, along with Edmonton, are where its Canadian activity is focused. Investment for its projects is internal as well as from trusted partners, their connections and outside equity.

“If you have the right opportunity and the math makes sense, and you bought it at a very good price, then everyone is interested,” Mahmoud said.

Other Turn Group projects

Mahmoud said Turn Group is looking at development projects potentially valued at $1.5 billion over the next five years, and Arcadis will be involved with all of them.

Turn Group is developing the nine-storey, 131-unit Westboro Tower purpose-built rental apartment with retail at grade at 255 Richmond Rd. in Ottawa.

Mahmoud said Turn Group has a site near 299 Carling where it’s planning another mixed-use development that will be more than 20 per cent larger. 

Turn Group also plans to develop a six-storey, 120-unit multi-family property in Edmonton and a resort hotel on a 15-acre lakefront property in Penticton, B.C.

Office conversions

Cairo Development was active in office conversions and Mahmoud said Turn Group will continue that in the United States, Calgary and possibly Edmonton.

One of those projects is Aurora Residence at 1207 11th Ave. SW in Calgary, which was formerly known as Connaught Tower. The seven-storey building will have 89 residential units, three live-work spaces and a daycare centre.

Britannia, another Calgary project, will see the conversion of a former 10-storey office building to a 160-unit residence.

“Office conversion reduces the cost by one-third compared to new construction and it reduces time by one-third at least,” said Mahmoud. “If you're not in that range, you're doing it wrong.”

Conversions are also more environmentally friendly since they create less waste and offices are generally located in areas where people want to live, Mahmoud added.