Landen Homes has submitted a plan to the City of Orillia, seeking approval to build 36 townhomes on West Street North across from Orchard Park Public School.
Over the last three decades, Landen Homes - whose specialty is 'infill' building - has built almost 200 homes within city limits.
“We like the fact that established neighbourhoods have all the amenities to downtown, the hospital, the waterfront ... we like to complement the area,” said Dennis Bottero, president of Landen Homes.
“When we go into a neighbourhood, we are met with enthusiasm. People know that we are working on a beautiful project that will enhance the area,” added Bottero’s wife, Bernadette Wainman, who is the executive vice-president of the company.
Both Bottero and Wainman are hands-on with each project they work on, looking after details ranging from colour selections to inspections and sales of the homes.
The West Street North development calls for 36 executive townhomes that range from 1,800- to 2,000-square-feet in size. They are going to be 'back-to-back' homes featuring 600-square-foot rooftop patios.
“This is a property that we’ve had our eye on for a while. It is close to amenities such as the highway, the Orillia Square mall, Couchiching Golf & Country Club, and obviously Lake Couchiching is right there as well,” Bottero said.
“We just thought that the location was prime; it’s a great location.”
Bottero says they are still looking for more future opportunities for infill building in Orillia.
“In Toronto, there are still opportunities for infill building, it’s a matter of assembling lands to create a project that makes sense,” he explained of the company's approach.
“For this particular one, we bought 388 West St. N., and then we knocked on the door to the neighbour and purchased their property. Then, we assembled the properties together. Then, we acquired another piece of an existing piece of property to increase the amenity area size.”
Bottero said Landen Homes is in the infancy stages of other projects in Orillia and has plans to continue to grow.
“If anyone out there has some land and they like what we do, call us,” Bottero said with a chuckle.
“We love what we do. I do the development side of it and Bernadette does the construction and finishing side of it. We are a great team, and it’s a family business,” he said.
Bottero says Orillia is the perfect place to keep building homes and he credits the city’s building department for growth in the area.
“Orillia always handles us professionally and they are wonderful to deal with, so we want to keep working here. We don’t want to go anywhere else,” he said.
Jeff Duggan, the city's senior planner, says the West Street development is consistent with Orillia's Official Plan policies that intensify development along the busy artery.
“Their applications will ultimately go to council. There will be a public process, they will hold an open house with a question-and-answer period that will be open to anyone who is interested,” Duggan explained.
“After that, there would be a statutory public meeting where the applications would be presented to council for their consideration and, ultimately, it would be a council decision for if this would be a good development for the city.”
Duggan says Landen Homes is a well-respected local developer.
“They have a number of projects under their belt within the city, all of which have been well received,” he said.
"They have contributed some very nice developments over the years, most recently over on James Street with the Churchlea Mews townhouses" at the former David H. Church School site.
