Mountain View Seniors' Housing (MVSH) officials have started planning for a new facility in Carstairs and expansions to existing facilities in Olds and Didsbury.
Now that the new facility in Sundre is near completion and due to open on June 1, Sam Smalldon, who is the chief administrative officer for MVSH, said they are looking at what's next on the priority list.
“We've identified projects, we've identified locations, we've identified needs and we're waiting for invitations, but we are working with each community, those three communities, for future projects,” Smalldon told the Gazette last week.
“And we do believe the Carstairs project is a very high priority.”
The new facility would need 90 to 125 units to be economically feasible, he said, adding the price tag would be similar to Sundre's project at $29 million.
“We believe there's a need for both replacement of our Carstairs Chinook Winds Lodge and the Carry Manor and Dr. Crystal Manor, which are independent self-contained units,” he said.
“We believe there is a need for care above the lodge level as well, which is 24-7 care,” he said, adding that level of care is not currently available in Carstairs.
There are currently 42 lodge units and 30 senior self-contained units in Carstairs. The new facility would also include extra units of those types.
“We have the potential to develop a concept, but we would have to base it on demand for it,” he said.
“We're at the very early stages of planning, which is to determine if we can prove the demand for the need. And then later prepare a concept to meet that need.”
He is unsure of the location at this point but says they would like it to be near downtown Carstairs.
“That's not our call. We would follow the town's invitation and the available land,” he said.
“But one of the things we look for is to be a community within a community, so we like to have our facility be close to amenities for seniors to be able to get shopping and downtown. So it would be in a community close to the downtown, we would hope.”
Officials would also need provincial grant money to be able to build the facility, he said.
“We would work with the community in Carstairs because we believe in what's called a community-driven process to be successful,” he added.
The expansion projects in Olds and Didsbury would add 40 to 50 24-7 care units on the existing lodge sites. That would put those communities in the range of 90 to 125 units, he said.
It takes roughly three years to get approval for a new facility and two years to build one, so officials are looking at a five-year time frame, he added.
"We're at the very early stages of planning, which is to determine if we can prove the demand for the need. And then later prepare a concept to meet that need."Sam Smalldon,MVSH CAO
