Ottawa-based developer Regional Group has filed a proposal with the City of Ottawa to transform a Westboro office building into residential housing.
Submitted in late November, the application outlines plans to convert the seven-storey office tower at 495 Richmond Rd., located between Broadview and Golden avenues, into 143 housing units. The proposal indicates the redevelopment would take place within the building’s existing structure, with no expansion to its current footprint.
The site spans roughly 7,530 square metres and has about 16 metres of frontage along Richmond Road. It sits within a mixed-use area, surrounded by low- to high-rise residential buildings to the west and south, and neighbouring amenities including a park, garden, and restaurant. The Kichi Zibi Mikan Parkway runs just north of the property. A surface parking lot is also included on the site, though its size has not been specified.
Constructed in 1983, the building was originally used for regional municipal offices and underwent renovations in 2012. With approximately 94,000 square feet of office space, it most recently served as the headquarters of the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which has since relocated to Constitution Square.
In 2019, Winnipeg-based Artis REIT announced the sale of the building for $39 million to an undisclosed buyer. More recently, the property was listed for lease in October 2025.
The proposed Westboro conversion is part of a broader trend in Ottawa, where multiple underused office buildings are being redeveloped into residential space.
Commercial real estate firm CBRE reports that several additional office-to-housing projects remain in the planning pipeline, including redevelopment concepts for the Jackson Building at 122 Bank Street, as well as properties at 240 Bank and 396 Cooper.
Elsewhere in the city, other projects have already moved beyond the proposal stage. CBRE notes that buildings at 77 Metcalfe Street and 265 Carling Avenue are slated for conversion into residential space. On Metcalfe, the former NAV Canada headquarters is being cleared to make way for a new 234-unit rental development by Groupe Mach. In the west end, KTS Properties is moving ahead with a phased transformation of the office building at 265 Carling, which is expected to deliver 70 new housing units.
A growing list of former office addresses has already begun transitioning to residential use. Among them are the previous Department of National Defence complex at 110 O’Connor Street, along with buildings at 200 Elgin, 360 Laurier, and 130 Slater.
With files by Mia Jensen