Update on 2 affordable housing projects in Woodstock
Old factory on VanSittart & previous church on Riddell
By Mark
Schadenberg
When the complex multi-layered
process called government funding or grants is considered, it's often
the “shovel-ready projects” which receive the go-ahead.
The County of Oxford is
the administrator of affordable housing in the county, and Queen's
Park had announced a deadline of Jan. 31, 2015 (from Ministry of
Municipal Affairs & Housing) to utilize the cash allocated to
Oxford, so last autumn county council essentially announced a contest
(request for proposals) for the best project to receive funding. I
know it's not really a contest and certainly not a lottery as there
were a dozen applications from across Oxford in the tender system –
each presenting a thorough report on their ideas.
FILTREC SCREENS
The winner was an owner
of a former church on Riddell Street – across from Woodstock
Collegiate Institute. A company called Filtrec Screens Inc is
renovating the former house of worship into 27 apartments (20
affordable and seven at market rents), says Paul Beeton of the
county. Filtrec receives more than $980,000 after being successful
in this application (screening, pun intended) process.
If you have ever seen
interior pictures of Central United Church (They were posted for
anyone to see on mls.ca when the building was for sale, but I will
still likely add one to the very end of this blog. Shhhhh!), one
would have hoped for a conversion to a theatre for plays as it was
almost a theatre-of-the-round. As a Realtor, I had seen many photos
of the former church, but its new owner is ready to go on a
conversion to (mostly) subsidized dwellings. It is truly always said
that Woodstock lacks affordable residences.
Ingersoll, Embro,
Tillsonburg, Thamesford and Innerkip projects were all vying for the
available dollars.
The winning project was
announced / approved at county council back on Jan. 28.
The good news for other
developers / large-scale builders is that there will be four more
deadlines in this 5-year funding exercise.
INDWELL
The reason I write
about affordable housing now is that Indwell was among the 12
attempting to secure money in the county tender, and Indwell is
currently in the local news as its transformation of 18 VanSittart
(Old Harvey Woods plant) is almost complete. This was an energetic
renovation as the former clothing factory had been vacant for about
20 years in a very visible location within the Friendly City.
Indwell is already well
known in Woodstock as the administrator of the Blossom Park Road
housing. Indwell, which had previously been known as Homestead
Christian Care, has a projection of operating 54 units at the
VanSittart site now and as many as 80 long term. The rejuvenation of
the building was estimated to be around $6.5 million, as noted in
previous published stories in The Sentinel-Review.
The Indwell website
notes demand exists as they estimate 400 people in Oxford are waiting
for affordable housing.
I certainly look
forward to attending the grand opening of this good news addition to
the city.
Graham Cubitt of
Indwell says the Harvey Woods lofts project will assist physically
challenged people and those on a fixed income, according to a 2013
statement in The Sentinel-Review:
“We
are committed to serving people who are living with disability,”
Cubitt said.
“Typically
our tenants are living with a low income, ODSP is our tenants’
typical source of income and we made that clear.”
ABOUT INDWELL
The other truly
terrific part about the Indwell construction process is the number of
local contractors I have seen on site. Sierra Construction leads the
list of Oxford County builders who are a part of the expertise there.
Residents may be moving
in as early as May. Congratulations to the folks at Indwell, along
with former Woodstock mayor Michael Harding who has been assisting in
various areas on this revitalization of a 'brownfield' manufacturing
building – everything from pushing a broom to acting as a
delegation at Woodstock city council on zoning and site plan
approvals.
LINKS:
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4576370-new-name-new-project-for-affordable-housing-provider/
Story from before
council meeting of Jan 28:
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2015/01/26/oxford-county-council-considers-affordable-housing-development-proposal
Story from 2013
announcing VanSitart project:
Council Preview Story:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
No comments:
Post a Comment