Canada's most energy efficient highrise, being built in northwest London, is getting a $3.9 million boost from the federal government.
London West MP Kate Young announced the additional funding for the 10-storey, mixed-use, multi-unit residential highrise development on Riverbend Road, just west of Oxford Street on Tuesday. Part of Sifton Properties' West 5 sustainable community, the new highrise, dubbed the Helio, will produce about 840 kilowatts of power and reduce 375 tones of CO2.
"This building really is the way of the future and I think the fact that Sifton has been the company that has made this happen is so good for London. There will be companies and communities across the country that will be watching this to see how successful it is and whether they can actually do the same thing," said Young, who made the funding announcement on behalf of Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi.
Construction work underway on the Helio highrise on Riverbend Rd.
In addition to being energy efficient, the new highrise packs a positive economic spinoff by creating hundreds of construction jobs.
"It's good for the environment and it's good for the economy as well," said Young.
The Helio will include 154 residential units, 17,000 square feet of retail space, and 321 parking spaces.
"The federal funding will allow us to take the project to the next level," said Richard Sifton, president of Sifton Properties. "We originally planned on putting in a certain volume of solar, but this allows us to put in more. It also allows us to upgrade some of the mechanical equipment to be the best coming from new factory testing and that will allow us to get that much closer to net-zero."
Sifton broke ground on the Helio in May of last year and expects to complete construction by 2020. Considered the centrepiece of the West 5 development, the Helio will be over 50 per cent more energy efficient than a standard building.
"It will be 77 per cent more efficient than any other building built under today's building code. In fact, we are building to the building code of 2030," boasted Sifton.
The West 5 neighbourhood, once completed, will have 2,000 residences including apartments, townhouses, condominiums, and retirement residences and will offer 400,000 square feet of new commercial development.
Net-zero technologies, which will allow the community to generate as much energy as it consumes annually, being installed included solar rooftops and facades, solar energy storage LED street lights, EV charging stations, and harvested rainwater for domestic plumbing and irrigation.
The green energy grant announced Tuesday comes from Natural Resources Canada's Energy Innovation Program.