Pandemic shopping driving demand for more warehouses in Ottawa

Ottawa's first Amazon distribution warehouse could soon havecompany, as demand soars for spaceto handle all the purchases people are making online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two development applications have recently been submitted to the City of Ottawa for sites on Boundary Roadinthe city's rural east, across from the Amazon warehouse that opened in 2019.

The Carlsbad Springs community was just recently notified about a nearly 6,000-square-metre warehouseproposed by New Brunswick-based Day and Ross. It's similar in size to a new Rosedale Group warehouse nearby.

A second proposal fora warehouse 10 times largeris being put forward by real estate company Avenue 31. It would go right across the roadfrom the Amazon warehouse, and includes plans for more than 100 truck docks.

The demand for e-commerce warehousing in Ottawais unlike anything Ian Shackell has seen in his three decades working in commercial and industrial real estate.

"There's always been exponential growth in the online delivery of goods and services, but the pandemic has sped it up so much quicker," said Shackell, a vice-president with CBRE Limited.

He gauges the demand is five years ahead of where it would otherwise be.

Change in Carlsbad Springs

Cumberland Coun. Catherine Kitts said both files arestill in the early stages of their planning approvals, and noted the new official plan will direct industrial distribution warehousesto the city's highway interchanges.

One rezoningin Ottawa's rural southwest,atRoger Stevens Drive at Highway 416, wasfiercely challenged and appealed by residents in the communityof North Gower.

• Proposed warehouse worries North Gower residents

Members of the community association in Carlsbad Springs, on the other hand, seem somewhatopen to new large businesses arriving on Boundary Road. Kitts wants to make sure they're well consulted.

"It's a community that's seeing a lot of change," she said.

Kitts said she couldsee questions arising about municipal water capacity for the projects, however.That area is served by what's called the Carlsbad "trickle-feed" system, which supplies potable water to homes through small pipes.

Both warehouses are asking to connect to it, and Kittssaid residents would want to bereassured their own water won't be affected.

Land on 400-series highways expensive

Shackellsaidwithonline shopping becoming a regular part of many people's lives, more warehouses are to come, although they might set upon the highways skirting other eastern Ontario townsrather than insideOttawacity limits.

Companies want land on 400-series highways that's served bymunicipalwater and sewers, Shackell said, but in Ottawa that's both expensive and hard to come by.

"Only the likes of Amazon can afford that kind of price per acre," Shackell said.

The area around the Amazon warehouse and its future neighbours at the Boundary Road interchange isn't the only location that could see more tractor-trailers pulling up with people's packages.

Thelargest warehouse ofall is nearing completion in Barrhaven. A secondmulti-storey Amazon distribution centre at the Strandherd Drive interchange with Highway 416 has been under construction by developer Broccolini over the past year.

At 260,000 square metres of floor space, it willbe almost three times bigger than its two-year-old predecessorin the east.