Seniors housing in the Bow Valley is steadily moving toward the addition of brand new units at the Bow River Seniors Lodge in Canmore with the This is Home project.
This is Home, under construction on 13th Street since early last summer, will create 63 units of level one and two seniors housing.
Bow Valley Regional Housing executive director Ian Wilson said those units will replace 43 in the current lodge and provide 20 new ones. That means residents of the seniors home can all expect to have a new place to call home sometime in 2017.
“We have a lot of inspections and testing that we have to do first,” Wilson said. “We essentially have to be re-licenced as a seniors lodge … and we want all our staff to know the facility quite well before we move residents over.”
Residents of the lodge have been considering the layouts of the new units, Wilson said, and he hopes to see the transition occur by the end of February.
“We are anticipating moving residents over in a three-day period and once we know more we will meet with residents and families,” he said.
But with the new seniors housing currently under construction representing the first phase of the project, Wilson said work is also beginning on phase two. He said the provincial government has given the green light to fund pre-design and architect work.
“A lot of it is making sure you have the program concept ready, so that is what we are looking for in the number of units and amenity spaces, for example,” he said. “That will lead up to construction cost estimates and will culminate in the process of selecting an architect.”
Phase two of the This is Home project is critical for seniors housing in Canmore as it is the phase that will provide level four seniors housing. Level four is the highest level of care within Alberta Health Services and means seniors with dementia will no longer have to leave Canmore to find a place to live.
Some private sector seniors housing level four (12 units) has become available in Canmore through Origin at Spring Creek, but a seniors housing needs assessment completed by the IBI Group this year for the valley showed that is only expected to meet the short-term demand for dementia care.
“Really what we are doing is trying to bring in the mix of units we see the most need for in this region,” Wilson said.
Phase two is being considered to replace the current footprint of the lodge, so Wilson said once residents move over into the new units, the old structure will be incorporated or demolished. However, he noted there are 15 units that were recently rebuilt after a fire destroyed a wing of the lodge a couple years ago. Those units will form part of phase two – but exactly how that will happen is not yet known, according to Wilson.
Phase one of the project began with an $8.5 million budget from the provincial government, but 2014 saw that price tag go up to $15.7 million.
Phase two does not yet have a green light in terms of full funding from the province, and no tenders have gone out for phase two because there has not yet been a design developed or approved.
