Tenants at a unique rental building should start moving in soon.
Using land owned by the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation since 1985, a seniors rental complex will feature one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, a commercial kitchen, meeting space, a fitness room, a rooftop gathering area, underground parking, an outdoor patio, and pathways to connect it to the area’s surrounding trail and park system.
“Occupancy, we’re looking at early summer,” said Peter Fassbender.
Fassbender, the former City mayor and provincial MLA, is on the partnership board that brought the project to fruition.
The site on 221A Street, across from Langley Memorial Hospital, was an empty lot for many years. Since 2015, work has been going on to create the seniors rental building, to help fill a gap in the local housing market. The 148 units are earmarked for those 55 and older.
“Looking at the market, we recognized that seniors facilities, rental facilities, there is a huge lack of them,” Fassbender said.
The lot was sold to a limited partnership, Murrayville Rental Housing Limited Partnership, in late 2020, to create an arm’s length relationship to the hospital foundation which retains ownership of the land. The foundation fundraises for improvements at the local hospital and local health-care. It spearheaded the campaign to raise money for the new ER and MRI suite at Langley Memorial as well as to for the new Foundry Langley which supports local youth.
“This building will provide support for the foundation and its activities,” Fassbender said. While the rates haven’t been set yet, the seniors complex will feature 30 per cent affordable housing with prized about 10 per cent below market value.
“Once this is all leased up, all the profit will go back to the hospital foundation,” Fassbender explained.
The project was first pitched to Township council in late 2020. The Township forgave the project’s development cost charges and amenity fees in exchange for the the inclusion of affordable housing and other requirements.
Vivian Smith is the former executive director of the foundation who is now involved with the development partnership. She and Fassbender toured Leslie Adams, Brenda Graf, and Melissa Plautz around the complex. Adams, Graf, and Plautz are with NAI Goddard & Smith, the Langley-based property management firm that will provide on-site manager living in the building. The company has about 120 rental and strata units under its management.
Fassbender said that despite the economy and rising inflation, the project is in good shape.
“The interest rate hikes, the inflation has affected the overall cost of construction. Supply and demand was an issue, but we are within our budget parameters so we’re very confident we’ll be bringing it in on budget. And like everything, it’s been a moving target,” he said.
The groundbreaking was late August 2021. The project, being built by Ventana Construction Vancouver, is a bit ahead of schedule.
The complex sits on Hospital Hill and features full height windows in the units, providing not only lots of natural light, but also nice views of the region. They also have outside balconies and there will be usable space on the rooftop.
The units are being constructed to be adaptable. For all appearances, they are regular suites, but they can be adapted depending on each person’s needs, whether they use a walker or wheelchair, or require equipment such as a lift to be installed.
“They can adapt it to the level of accessibility,” Smith explained.
It started with the planning work.
“We did a lot of work to look at the market to see where the demands were. We looked at what people would be looking for in a unit, features, finishing,” Fassbender explained.
As well, the design, in an L shape, was created to preserve as many trees as possible on the site, to create greenspace.
“It’s going to be a very walker-friendly thing for the seniors as well. We’ve tried to protect as much of the greenspace as we can,” Fassbender added.
He added that when the occupants move in, they will have a new neighbour – the foundation is moving its offices from the hospital into space on the first floor of the new complex. There will also be some retail space available.
People interested in renting can contact NAI Goddard and Smith to being the prescreening application process. Call 604-534-7974.
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• READ MORE: B.C. housing minister tours Langley City seniors complex under construction
• READ MORE: Langley church uses some of its land to build seniors housing
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Langley Memorial HospitalLangley Memorial Hospital FoundationLangley Townshipseniors housing
