A controversial addition to the Andaz Hotel
By Allen Brown
Two years ago, the Lowertown Community Association (LCA) expressed concern that the addition to the Andaz Hotel proposed at that time did not respect the designation of the site as part of the ByWard Market Heritage Conservation District (HCD). In mid-December 2025, the LCA again expressed concerns that a new plan for an even larger hotel addition also contravened the Heritage Overlay and grossly exceeded the Mass and Scale Principles in the ByWard Market HCD plan.
The Heritage Overlay requires that any demolished heritage building “be rebuilt with the same character and at the same scale, massing, volume, floor area and in the same location as existed prior to its removal or destruction.” Unfortunately, the proposed 17+-storey Andaz Hotel addition, which replaces a now demolished low-rise heritage building, does not respect this requirement.
In addition, the 2024 ByWard Market HCD plan states: “The conservation of the cultural heritage value and heritage attributes of the HCD and of Contributing properties, on adjacent to, or across the street from a proposed development may constitute a limiting factor in terms of height, scale, or massing, of development on the designated property. Building heights within the HCD shall generally be low-rise to allow for the conservation of Contributing buildings….” Since the hotel addition would be completely within the boundaries of the HCD and adjacent to heritage buildings both on the north side of York Street, and at 126-134 York Street, the project is flagrantly non-compliant with city policies.
The LCA proposed that to better integrate the hotel addition into the HCD, it could perhaps mirror the five-storey massing of the heritage building at 126 York Street (the former Natural Food Pantry), with a significantly lower maximum height. The current proposal does not do this. In fact, the new proposal is three storeys higher than the existing 15-storey Andaz Hotel (if the mechanical penthouse is included). It also does not adhere to the “angular plane” guidelines in the city’s Urban Design Guidelines, which promote the transition in scale between buildings. It doesn’t even respect the advice of the developer’s own heritage consultant in 2023 for that site, who recommended that: “. . . the massing of any new building will be a maximum of six storeys at York Street, stepping back to a maximum of nine storeys towards George Street. This massing will provide a transition from the height of the proposed Andaz addition to the five-storey massing of the heritage building at 126 York Street.”
Claridge is now proposing to build a 17-storey hotel tower – a full eight stories higher than the maximum nine-storey height recommended by its own consultant for that site!
Since the proposal does not respect the new HCD plan for the ByWard Market, the city’s Tall Building Guidelines, nor the Heritage Overlay, the LCA has recommended that the Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Control application be denied by the city. Despite these issues, City Heritage Planning staff supported the amendment, which was approved by the Built Heritage Committee on February 11, 2026. A further update will appear in the next issue of the Echo.
