It has been a long time coming, but Mission seniors will soon have a new activity centre and have access to more than 70 new affordable rental homes, with construction now underway on a new development in Mission.
The Mission Association of Seniors Housing is receiving $7.4 million from the Province’s Building BC: Community Housing Fund and construction financing of up to $11.5 million to build 74 homes at 7682 Grand St.
The six-storey wood-frame building will offer studio and one- and two-bedroom units for seniors with low to middle incomes. Projected monthly rents will range from $375 for some studios and one-bedroom units to $1,050 for some two-bedroom units.
A community centre on the ground floor of the building will be funded and operated by the District of Mission parks, recreation and culture department.
Construction is expected to be complete in spring 2021.
Last week, an official ground-breaking ceremony took place at the Mission Leisure Centre – adjacent to the new construction project – to celebrate the occasion.
Bob Ingram, president of the Mission Seniors Centre Association, emceed the short ceremony. He has been involved with creating a new seniors’ centre for more than a decade.
“I started working on the concept in about 2007,” he said.
Now, 12 years later, the shovels are in the ground.
“The plans have come and gone, they have died and been resurrected. It has quite a history,” Ingram said.
Now, a new 11,000-square-foot seniors’ centre with 74 seniors’ housing units above it is being built. The project has been named the Boswyk Centre after Marilyn Boswyk, who left a bequest of funding for the seniors’ centre.
“It was a $1 million bequest; $500,000 was for capital – that’s for the building of the facility – and then $500,000 is being invested and the interest will be used for operating costs for the centre,” explained Ingram.
It is expected that the new project will be completed within 15 months.