EcoCité on the Canal was marketed as a green development featuring geothermal heating, rooftop gardens, low-flow toilets and sustainably harvested building materials.

The failure of a new Ottawa condominium that marketed itself as an eco-friendly development could make some people shy away from other green buildings, an industry group fears.

People who paid as much as $100,000 in deposits and other costs to eventually acquire units in the "EcoCité on the Canal" development on Bank Street, near Lansdowne Park, learned this week that the nearly completed, debt-ridden building has been seized by a mortgage company.

Robin Hutcheson, president of the Ottawa chapter of the Canada Green Building Council, said Wednesday there are still people who have doubts about green building technologies, and the EcoCité incident doesn't help.

"It will just solidify some of their skepticism," he added.

EcoCité on the Canal features geothermal heating, rooftop gardens, low-flow toilets and sustainably harvested building materials. People who put down deposits on the units had been told they could move in on Labour Day weekend.

Jonathan Westeinde, who heads another Ottawa company that designs eco homes, agreed that the reputation of green buildings may "unfortunately" be tarnished by the EcoCité incident.

"But I don't think the green elements are what caused the problems this project had," he added.

Growing pains

Westeinde is CEO of Windmill Development Group, which built an award-winning eco-condominium tower at Holland Avenue and Wellington Street in Ottawa's Hintonburg neighbourhood.

He said he thinks EcoCité's problems are likely due to the fact that this was its first development in Ottawa and it had never done a project on that scale as large as its Ottawa building.

However, Westeinde said he doesn't believe EcoCité's problems will lower demand for green homes. Instead, he expects people to learn from the situation.

"The next time there's a building being built to this degree of specification, I'm sure everyone will know where to cover themselves a bit better so this doesn't happen again."

Hutcheson also believes people will continue to buy into green buildings. "The market demand is still there and it's growing."

As of this summer, seven of the 25 units in the EcoCité building remained unsold. Their prices were listed between $450,000 and $675,000.