Recognized as one of the largest family-owned development consortiums in Canada, Taggart Group — currently comprised of Doran Contractors Limited, Tamarack Homes, Tartan Homes, Taggart Construction Limited, Taggart Investments, and Taggart Realty Management — is celebrating a hard-earned milestone: 75 years of community building and quality projects across Eastern Ontario.
Integrity, quality, and community: for three- quarters of a century, these have been the cornerstones behind the success of the Taggart Group of Companies.
“As we celebrate 75 years, we reflect on this journey with great pride. Each project, partnership, and milestone has shaped us into who we are: a company dedicated to our craft and our community,” said Julie Taggart, Co-President of Taggart Realty Management, reflecting on the milestone.
It is a journey that first began in the mid-1940s when Harold Taggart started building, with a focus on the provision of much-needed housing for Ottawa’s war veterans. A few years later, in 1948, he would go on to found Taggart Construction, originally specializing in infrastructure. From here, the company went on to develop a wide, impressively varied portfolio, envisioning, and building residential, industrial, and commercial developments across the city. As succeeding generations joined the fray, Taggart expanded into general contracting, engineering, land development, and property management.
Now into its third generation of family leadership, the company and its more than 700 skilled employees, hundreds of whom have been with the company for at least a decade, are building for the future. Credited for much of the company’s success, employees from all departments shared in on the 75th anniversary celebrations in June at a party at the company headquarters on Albion Road South.
Scott Parkes, Co-President of Tamarack Homes, speaks at the 75-year celebration.
As for what’s next for the company, Taggart has several projects on the go. In Little Italy, you will see crews building at 93 Norman Street, where the Taggart Group is developing a nine-storey apartment complex that will include 122 units at different levels of affordability and accessibility.
Over in southeast Ottawa, a new community in partnership with the Algonquins of Ontario is in the beginning stages. The Tewin community features a holistic design approach based on Algonquin values and respect for the earth. The project will accommodate up to 45,000 residents and offer an inclusive and sustainable community that aims to accommodate a growing city while preserving Ottawa’s Greenbelt.
For the Taggart Group of Companies, community building means more than completing construction projects; it also means supporting Ottawa and Kingston area charities that are making a difference. One example is BGC Ottawa’s new Taggart-Parkes Family Clubhouse in Ottawa’s south end, built to provide life-changing programming to youth. On site there are kitchens, a full-sized gym, and other facilities, all aimed at promoting community-minded programming emphasizing education, physical activity, and leadership and social skills. Through the BGC Ottawa Medallion Program, fellow Ottawans can help Taggart build even more spaces and programs through either a one-time gift or a five-year pledge.
The family also made headlines with its most recent donation: a $10-million gift to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s fundraising campaign in support of the new, much-anticipated $2.8-billion Civic campus, which will include a 12-storey, helicopter pad-equipped patient care tower when it is completed in about four years.
The Taggart family has a connection with the hospital that goes beyond its profound appreciation for the crucial role the facility plays in the lives of people who live in this area. Company founder Harold Taggart was named after Harold Fisher, the mayor of Ottawa when the original Civic campus was established, whose bronze statue sits at the soon-to-be-upgraded facility.
There are many such examples of the Taggart Group’s deep ties to the community – ties that make it natural for the company to focus on investing in its own backyard. As chairman Jim Taggart said, “We’ve been in Ottawa and Kingston a long time and the Capital Region has been good to us.”
Jim Taggart, Chairman of the Taggart Group of Companies, cuts the cake at the company’s 75-year anniversary celebration on June 8, 2023
Looking to the next 75 years, you can expect community building to remain one of the Taggart Group’s key pillars, along with integrity and quality, as it continues to build on its legacy of connection and growth in Ottawa and Kingston.
By Dan Lalande
