At the time of its amalgamation with the City of Ottawa, the City of Kanata had a population of 58,636. It was first settled in the 19th century by Europeans as the Township of March. It became the City of Kanata in 1978 and is now known as the high-tech area of Ottawa and is home to the following high-tech employers in Ottawa:
- HP
- Mitel
- March Networks
- Ubiquity Software
- Alcatel-Lucent
- JDS Uniphase
- Dell Canada
- Smart Technologies
- Norpak
- MDS Nordion
- Breconridge
- Cisco Systems, Inc.
Kanata’s main neighborhoods are:
Beaverbrook
Beaverbrook is a neighborhood that was primarily settled in the 60s and 70s and offers a very interesting mix of homes. Bill Perron, who is a builder that modelled most of the Beaverborook development offered very unique housing. It had a very rustic feel. He initially used cedar shingles and shakes for roofing. There was also a lot of natural clay brick . He built these homes on plenty of oversized lots that had many mature trees on them. This is a very nice neighborhood for people looking for bungalows, attractive split levels, and two storey homes. Beaverbrook continues to be a highly sought after area.
Bridlewood
Bridlewood is a newer community to kanata in that it is located south of the Queensway. It offers a number of builders that have built a variety of homes varying from very modest two-storey homes right up to homes over 2000 square feet. People looking at getting into the real estate market can often find affordable housing built in the 80s and 90s in the Bridlewood area.
Emerald Meadows
An expansion of Bridlewood to the south has lent itself to Emerald Meadows. This area offers newer housing. It also has some hgiher density row units and townhomes that are ideally suited to first time home buyers. The builders in this area have done an extremely good job of getting a good mix and variety of homes to the neighborhood with a blend of executive two-story homes with single family homes and then pockets of higher denisty townhomes.
Glen Cairn
Glen Cairn is one of the more older estatblished neighborhoods in Kanata with affordable housing in the way of semi-detached, bungalows, and two-story homes. People looking at the Kanata lifestyle and looking at entry level into an older homes will find Glen Cairn a pefect match for them.
Kanata Lakes
Kanata Lakes has the reputation of being one of the most prestigius neighborhoods in the Kanata area. Here, many of the homes are in close proximity to the Kanata Lakes golf course and many of the higher end homes actually do back on to the golf course or have golf course views. A lot of the homes in Kanata Lakes will be in the 2500-4000 square foot range in size. You will find a lot of business professionals living in this area as well as doctors, lawyers, etc.
Katimavik
Katimavik is one of the more estatblished neighborhoods in Kanata. The nice thing about Katimavik is that it has very close proximity to the Queesnway. The commute downtown is very good in that you are only 5 or 10 miutes off of the queensway from anywhere in the Katimavik area. There is a good mix of higher denisty housing as well as single family homes. Much of this nieghborhood was developed in the 80s so there are some affordable older homes in the area that have been nicely upkept and modernized.
Marchwood/Lakeside
The area of Marchwood Lakeside is commonly known to locals as Heritage Hills. It is located near the neighborhood of Kanata Lakes. There are a wide variety of homes in the Heritage Hills neighborhood, ranging from row housing to estate homes, with many styles in between. This neighborhood enjoys close proximity to the Kanata Lakes Golf Course as well as the entertainment/shopping area of Kanata Centrum.
Morgan's Grant
Morgan's Grant is a development to the north of Kanata. Initailly, it offers some very affordable housing as it was developed in the 90s and the early part of the 2000s. There is a mix of good-sized, single family homes. As Morgan's Grant continues to expand with new home construction, higher denisty row unts and executive townhomes can be found in this neighborhood with all the modern conveniences that most young families will be looking for in the housing market.
Kanata is home to the Ottawa Senators and Scotiabank Place. Its local newspaper is the Kanata Kourier-Standard. Other buildings and institutions in Kanata include:
- The Kanata Complex
- The Kanata Leisure Centre and Wave Pool
- The Brookstreet Resort
- Kanata Centrum, Ottawa’s 3rd largest shopping centre
- The Royal Canadian Legion’s national headquarters
- Ron Maslin Playhouse, a 350-seat theatre
- Bell Sensplex
- AMC Kanata 24 Theatres, the largest movie theatre in Ottawa
