New Senior's Facility In New Hands

Saturday, October 06, 2007 06:10 AM

New Senior's assisted living centre architectural rendering

The new assisted living facility at 20th and Victoria isn’t yet built and there is already an "under new management" sign.

When Northern Health announced it was starting construction on the new assisted living facility for seniors in Prince George, there was no mention of the proponents who had been given the greenlight for the project.

Northern Health had a preliminay agreement with Spectrum Seniors Housing Development and Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT to respectively develop and operate the new facility.

Northern Health’s Mark Karjaluoto says Spectrum and Chartwell are no longer involved. "There were some funding issues, and we needed to have this project underway, so we appealed directly to the Province for the dollars and Northern Health is now continuing with the project." The actual construction will be done by WIC of Prince George, the same company which built the Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre. And like the contract to build the sport centre, the contract has a fixed price, there is no allowance for cost over runs by the contractor. If the contractor goes over budget, the contractor will have to absorb that loss.

Karjaluoto says there still needs to be work done on who will actually have the contract to operate the facility.

The project was supposed to open in 2008, but those funding issues ( which have now been resolved ) pushed that back to the summer of 2009 "There could always be some unforseen delays, like weather, or delays in getting some materials that could impact that time frame" says Karjaluoto, but the target completion is the summer of 2009.

The design presented by Chartwell and Spectrum ( shown above) is the design that will be used for construction of the $42 million dollar facility which will have 93 new complex care beds for seniors and people with disabilities who need around-the-clock nursing support.

The plans also include 80 new assisted living units. Of that number, 50 will be provided under Independent Living BC, a housing-for-health program where tenants pay 70 per cent of their after-tax income for their units. Residents will receive two meals a day, weekly housekeeping and linen services, 24-hour emergency response, personal care services and recreational and social opportunities.

"I think the good news here is that we are finally going to have those beds" says Karjaluoto,

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Posted on Saturday, October 06, 2007 06:10 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: owl on October 6 2007 8:43 AM

"If the contractor goes over budget, the contractor will have to absorb that loss."

Hopefully they can do a better job of the concrete on this job......

Posted by: owl on October 6 2007 8:45 AM

BTW .... if they are using the same design, who are the Architects and Engineers? Will they have oversight of the quality control?

Posted by: REALIST on October 6 2007 9:56 AM

Interesting change on partnerships. Perhaps the "government" has understood the message about privatization. We are hearing stories about how private owned and run senior care centers have been neglecting patients and making mistakes about handing out meds etc. Perhaps the group originally partnered with was the same one recently sited by the "opposition". At least it appears that when the building is completed, we will own it and thus reap the benefit of our money instead of a corporation. Now if we could only convince them the run it publicly so we can avoid having a corporation staff it with eight dollar an hour people who are only there for a pay cheque!!!

Posted by: Chester on October 6 2007 3:51 PM

As soon as I hear about government involvement, I cringe. More red tape, more costs, more taxes, more subsidizing. Not for me thanks. Chester

Posted by: jonnypg on October 6 2007 4:45 PM

Hope it comes with lots of security in that area!

Posted by: Harbinger on October 6 2007 6:34 PM

Bordering the hood, eh? Ain't it in a "migration" route to downtown? Might be interesting.

Posted by: Palopu on October 6 2007 7:23 PM

I didnt realize that this property was owned by the City and was in the process of being sold to Spectrum for the sum of $2.7 Million, for 2.7 hectares. Apparently the City is now in the process of trying to sell it to the Provincial Government????

Seems every time we turn around we find the City in the real estate business. Who looks after this money. Does it go in and out of general revenue, or is there a special account set up for the City to purchase property, without any oversight.

Posted by: Chester on October 7 2007 8:12 AM

I agree that this project is something our community needs, but I question the process how it's being done. Who is initiating it, the NHA, the city or a developer or the Province? Chester