The first order of business for Lyn Hall as newly appointed mayor back in 2014 was to pick up the phone and talk to Frank Quinn of A&T Ventures, a developer of seniors housing based in Kamloops, about the RiverBend Seniors Community project he presented to council the year before.
The RiverBend Seniors Community project, to be completed by late 2017, offers 172 units, with 66 units rented at below-market rates and operated by Oncore Seniors Society, a non-profit group with a 60-year history in seniors care.
The remaining 106 luxury condominiums are to be sold at full market value.
"We do business in a lot of municipalities in British Columbia and nobody's open for business like Prince George," said Quinn during a sod turning Wednesday morning at the corner of Oak Street and 20th Avenue, right behind the Gateway seniors complex. "The welcome that Mayor Lyn Hall gave us, the administrative staff, the keen interest of all your council members, the innovative solutions that were created to make this project viable through the city are as good as we've ever seen anywhere and as a community you should understand how unique it is to do business in Prince George for any entrepreneur that comes here. It just doesn't happen anywhere else in the province."
Also in attendance at the celebratory event with Hall were MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris and several members of city council, as well as city staff and representatives from Oncore Seniors Society and BC Housing.
This is the third complex for seniors housing A&T Ventures has created. There are two successful facilities sitting side by side in Kamloops that have created a hub for seniors' activities where best practices learned there will make the Prince George RiverBend operation seamless, said Quinn.
Within the complex, there is a common area that includes a full dining facility, library, theatre room, a gym and other recreation areas for tenants.
Support services for those seniors in the rental units include three meals a day, assistance with laundry, housekeeping and hospitality services. For a fee, these services will also be available to market unit owners that offers the option for them to age in place.
With the Oncore Seniors Society running those services comes full time employment opportunities for Prince George residents as there is a need for about 25 staff.
"We're going to have full-time housekeepers, full-time dietary aides, full-time cooks, and some casual staff because we are 24/7 365 and somebody's always got to be available to provide those ongoing services," said Cindy Linton, general manager for the Oncore Seniors Society. "We will have a dining room manager who is also a dietitian and we've developed a really extensive menu that gets cycled through every four weeks and we've found that if anything gets seniors going it's their food and their menu."
B.C. government is providing $4 million for the purchase of 33 supportive units and more than $3.8 million in financing to Oncore Seniors Society to purchase 33 more units.
The city provides $265,050 in development cost charges relief, an affordable housing grant of $885,000, a 10-year municipal tax exemption on the assessed value of improvement as well as reductions in up-front development costs. To be eligible for these breaks, the project needed to have accessibility features for the units, be sure the location of the complex was close to transit and amenities and have affordable housing units.
For more information about the RiverBend Seniors Community visit theriverbendpg.com.
