By Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen
When Andre Champoux saw the condo, his past and future flashed before him. "I'm home!" he exclaimed. "Where do I sign?"
He wasn't using the word "home" lightly. The two-bedroom apartment had been his Grade Six classroom in the mid-1960s. That was when the stylish Vanier development known as Le Saint Denis was still Ecole Cadieux, a kindergarten to Grade 6 school that Champoux attended because it was a couple of blocks from his home.
"It took me about five minutes to decide to buy," he says of the corner apartment, the Montfort.
Le Saint Denis is a ReDevelopment Group project on St. Denis Street in what many now call Le Quartier Vanier. The original name of the largely francophone community was the less hip Janeville and, for many years after that, Eastview.
The infill community consists of 49 condos in the former school, which was built in 1959, and 19 new, adjacent townhouses. A third floor was added to the original school, and when Le Saint Denis went up for sale in late 2007, it was under the triple banner of urban, affordable and green. The townhouses sold out and only a dozen or so of the bright, lofty condos remain. Visitors can see two furnished condos to whet their appetites for urban living. For information, visit www.lestdenis.ca or call 613-747-9914.
Champoux moved in this past December. "It's very quiet," says the owner of Excels Furniture Repairs. "Even the neighbours in front are still the same as when I was a kid. Everyone knows me, and I know everyone."
He vividly remembers his old, yellow-brick school, which his two children also attended. Like many students then, he was able to walk home every day for a hot, nourishing lunch. Although most of the teachers were lay, there were a couple of nuns. "There was one who was in charge. She was short, four-by-four, with a strap always hanging by the blackboard."
He also remembers neighbouring Nault Park, where he and his pals played. The park hosted an annual winter carnival and an outdoor rink where a teenage Champoux skated with his girlfriend.
The park fell on hard times, becoming a haven for drug dealers. The ReDevelopment Group in conjunction with the City of Ottawa has refurbished the area with a new soccer pitch, playground equipment and a waterfall feature for cooling off on hot summer days. Last summer, the voices of neighbourhood children once again rang through the park.
The burnished neighbourhood image is one of Le Saint Denis' selling points. So is the contemporary side of this project, which came into being when Ecole Cadieux was put up for sale in 2006 after closing because of declining enrolment.
That contemporary note includes not just smart design by Liff & Tolot Architects and 2H Interior Design but also a host of green features. Buyers, for example, get a one-year membership in VRTUCAR, a car-sharing program that provides an on-site Toyota Matrix for their use. Cars are available at other locations in the city if the one at Le Saint Denis is already in use. The hope is that sharing will lead to less car use and a drop in auto-related pollution. For those who do own vehicles, outdoor parking costs $6,000.
As well, the ReDevelopment Group is giving every buyer a Kona bicycle with a wicker basket. For every two bicycles purchased by Le Saint Denis, Kona will donate a bicycle to medical workers treating HIV patients in Africa.
With public transit at its doorstep and such eco-friendly features as dual-flush toilets, Le Saint Denis is a candidate for eco-prestigious certification as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) project.
Le Saint Denis' remaining condos range from the 855-square-foot L'Ecolier at $259,900 to the 1,410-square-foot L'Erable at $339,900. Three other units are on reserve. With the spring sales cycle in bloom and interest rates predicted to start increasing this summer, the remaining units are expected to disappear quickly.
Like Champoux, Louise Cadieux is delighted that she bought her condo, the 1,245-square-foot Janeville model. And while the similarity of her last name to that of the former school is pure coincidence, she does have a family connection to Ecole Cadieux -- her late husband Ronald Cadieux taught there from 1967 to 1970. The couple's three children also attended the school.
"It was a nice school. When kids left to go to high school, they were well-prepared," says the Vanier native.
"They had good teachers. That's why we moved here."
Cadieux, who volunteered at the school for two decades, says Vanier still has the community feel she remembers from her childhood. Because of its francophone population, "They always called it 'The Little Quebec.'"
As for Champoux, he says with a laugh, "I've gone 360 degrees. I started here, got married, divorced, now I'm back.
"I sit in my condo and I wonder, 'What did I do all that for just to come back to the same spot?'"
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