The developer of Maison Riverain in Ottawa succeeded in building a multifamily rental housing in a congested urban environment while maintaining a focus on limiting the property's impact on the environment.
The 294-unit purpose-built rental building developed by Equiton, a Burlington, Ontario-based residential and commercial property investment company, was completed in Ottawa's Vanier neighbourhood in 2025. Built on the former site of an underused commercial plaza, Maison Riverain is credited for being a lynchpin development in the area because of its residential density, sustainability and economic impact along the Montreal Road corridor.
When completed, the new project is slated to contain approximately 1,100 units for more than an estimated 1,500 residents. Equiton envisioned that the project would expand the local housing supply with modern, professionally managed rentals to support inclusive living and spearhead further revitalization in the neighbourhood.
That’s why Maison Riverain was chosen as the recipient of CoStar’s Multifamily development of the year award for the Ottawa-Gatineau region by a panel of industry professionals familiar with the area.
About the project: The development is billed as a sustainable multifamily development, in part, because of its use of a Variable Refrigerant Flow heating and cooling system that is expected to achieve 40.7% in energy savings and 53.5% greenhouse gas emission reductions compared to national building code baselines. Maison Riverain features amenities designed to promote wellness and livability, and technology such as a secure intercom system with facial recognition, online maintenance requests and connectivity throughout commons areas.
What the judges said: “As a planner working on major city-building projects in Ottawa, I think that Maison Riverain is certainly the most impactful multifamily development as it exemplifies the type of transformative, policy-aligned infill [development] our planning framework is intended to deliver. The project replaces this long-underutilized commercial site with meaningful residential density and expanded housing choice while advancing neighbourhood revitalization along the Montreal Road corridor through sustainability leadership, strong community partnership and measurable economic uplift,” said Krishon Walk, a planner with the city of Ottawa’s economic development services.
Maison Riverain is a "major reinvigoration of a gentrifying neighborhood and a much-needed infill density play for the area. [It has] sustainable and well-designed HVAC systems to reduce energy costs and emissions,” said Sachin Anand, vice president of acquisitions and dispositions at Regional Group.
“It’s a much-needed development in an underserved area of Ottawa. Vanier is well located in the city and needs investment to attract more traffic to become a more desirable area,” said Ben Zunder, a vice president and sales representative at CDN Global.
They made it happen: : Helen Hurlbut, president and co-founder of Equiton Developments, and Daniel Byrne of Main and Main Developments led the development of Maison Riverain. Its design was led by Rod Lahey, acting principal of RLA Architecture.