Hamilton Gardens

Déjà vu? Hamilton Gardens still on the way

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / September 17, 2025 / Devcore, development, Hamilton Gardens, La Pêche, Madeline Kerr, New housing development, Wakefield

By Madeline Kerr

Wakefielders who have been following the decade-and-a-half long saga of the Hamilton Gardens development, planned for the lot behind Cafe Earle, have heard this one before: the developer recently told the Low Down that the first phase of construction will begin “within the next couple of weeks.”

This is similar to what representatives from Devcore, the Gatineau-based firm in charge of the Hamilton Gardens development, told the Low Down earlier this year in May, last September and even all the way back in 2016.

But Philippe Goulet, VP of design and construction at Devcore, sounded confident when he asserted on Aug. 29 that the company has “the permits in hand” to begin building a single dwelling on the property, intended for the former owner of the land.

With regards to the rest of the development, which will include 40 units in total, Goulet said that Devcore has completed all required hydrogeological and geotechnical studies on the site and is now working with the municipality on plans to connect the site to municipal services like water and sewer. Later this month, according to Goulet, Devcore will be submitting their plans for the buildings’ designs to the municipality, and then, he anticipates, Devcore will “get the [rest of the] permits in hand before the end of the year and we can start [construction] after that.”

He acknowledged that the community has been anticipating this development for more than a decade. Devcore bought the land, which was originally home to Hamilton Motors, for $870,000 around 15 years ago. In 2011, Devcore’s original proposal for the site included three-story condos, up to 60 apartments and underground parking – vastly different from what Devcore plans to build now.

According to La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux, zoning for the development was approved in 2013.

“I understand that people think that [plans for the development were] dealt with 10 years ago, and that we haven’t changed anything [in the meantime], but that’s not the case. The plans have been adapted – we restarted this project probably a year and a half ago or close to two years ago,” Goulet explained.

He said he’s also aware that some residents are concerned the higher density housing will put a strain on the village’s water table.

“We did have an exhaustive hydrogeological study completed with test wells…to see the drawdown of the water table, and the effect was negligible,” Goulet asserted.

He added, “We’re satisfied that it’s okay to build and that it won’t affect the municipality or the other residents nearby.”

Hamilton Gardens will include 40-unit townhouses, duplexes and triplexes. In May this year, Devcore told the Low Down the homes would feature peaked roofs, large windows and oversized porches reminiscent of homes from the 1950s and would be available in colours that blended “seamlessly” with the rest of the village.

“Right now the land is unfortunately underused,” Goulet said of the site, which has sat empty for close to 15 years. “It’s asphalt and overgrowth…it’s a bit of an eyesore.”

He promised that eyesore would become “a very nice sort of entrance to the village…pretty soon.”

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Hamilton Gardens’ to break ground ‘shortly’

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / June 3, 2025 / Devcore, Gatineau River, Hamilton Gardens, Housing development, La Pêche, Trevor Greenway, Wakefield

By Trevor Greenway

It’s been nearly 15 years since developers laid out plans for a waterfront development along Wakefield’s iconic riverfront. Now, the 40-unit townhouse project known as Hamilton Gardens will finally break ground this spring.

The municipality of La Pêche just approved a couple of minor variances to the project, which will see the buildings increase in size slightly. Developers are also switching up a colour scheme so that the homes blend “seamlessly” into the neighbouring environment.

“When you look at the area there of Hamilton Gardens, it’s going to have the feeling it has always been there,” Devcore VP of development Daniel Landry told the Low Down in mid-May. “It’s not going to look like an anachronism to the existing urban fabric of the Wakefield sector,” he added.

The development will be built next to Cafe Earle on Wakefield’s main drag, overlooking the Gatineau River.

In terms of changes, the minor variances approved by the municipality were indeed minor, as the surface area of the buildings in the development is increasing from 20 per cent to 23 per cent of the lot. Landry said there were issues with the design, as there wasn’t enough space for garbage trucks or emergency vehicles to turn around, and there would have been two dead ends in the development, which he said wouldn’t be efficient. So, they increased the size of buildings by three per cent globally and reduced the number of units from 45 to 40 to accommodate more space for vehicles to maneuver. Other changes included removing storm shutters on the windows and reducing setback requirements for three-family semi-detached buildings to 6.29 metres from the standard eight metres.

The homes’ cladding will consist of a mix of red brick, wood and high-density wood fibre like Maibec or other composite materials. They will have tin roofs, and every unit will be unique in colour: earth-tone reds, greens, yellows and greys. However, because the existing Cafe Earle – which is adjacent to the development – is already yellow, developers didn’t want clusters and “repeating colours,” so they changed the colour scheme’s order.

“Especially for the ones in the front, because we don’t want two yellow houses and two red or two red and one yellow,” said Landry. “Cafe Earle is yellow, and so we wanted to have not the same colours repeating. So that’s why we’ve put one red beside Cafe Earle, one grayish-blueish building in the middle and one yellow going towards the church,” he said referring to the Good Shepherd Anglican church, which is near to the development.

Landry boasted that the project exceeds La Pêche’s mandatory 25 per cent of greenspace, as Hamilton’s will feature closer to 45 per cent. The homes will be built in a colonial style with peaked roofs, large windows and oversized covered porches where residents can sit and interact with village life passing by. “Everything around it is going to look like part of the project because of the architecture,” added Landry.

La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux told the Low Down that the zoning for Hamilton Gardens was approved in 2013. However the changes are still subject to approval from the municipality’s Public Works department, its Environment department and the MRC’s Public Security sector.

Landry said Devcore hopes to begin construction shortly.

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