A seniors’ complex that offers a community of faith is being developed off the TransCanada Highway just east of the city limits.
Prince of Peace Village will build out to 174 villas and a 132-unit seniors’ manor on Garden Road. (The city limit is 84th Street E., and Garden Road would be at 100th Street.)
The villas are a life-lease development for empty-nesters over the age of 55, says marketing co-ordinator Lisa Candido. In a life lease, the occupant owns the house and the development owns the land. The arrangement allows enough control to keep the village a seniors’ development. There are monthly maintenance fees, similar to a condominium.
If a homeowner wants to move for any reason, the unit is professionally appraised. If it doesn’t sell within six months, the village will take it for the appraised value less a five-per-cent administration fee. The same goes for the estate of an occupant who dies.
The manor is a rental seniors’ home offering meals and housekeeping. “It’s the next step up in a way,” Candido says.
Sales and marketing assistant Cheryl Gostola says the villas have nine different floor plans from 1,003 to 1,359 sq. ft. The units have full basements and walkout basements are being developed on one cul-de-sac.
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Some buyers have developed their basements as guest areas for when their children or grandchildren visit.
Candido notes that there is a full wheelchair radius in the bathrooms and the light switches are lower and electric outlets higher than standard heights.
Units start at $144,900 and go up to $249,900 for the walkouts. There are two bedrooms on the main floor and one or two bathrooms depending on the home’s size.
Units have either a single or double garage and RV parking is available. Maintenance fees run from $105 to $137 a month, Gostola adds.
A large community centre will be attached to the manor, with a convenience store, crafts room, fitness room and woodworking shop. There are already two kilometres of walking paths, which will eventually circle the entire village.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and School are next door on the same property and the title is held by the Alberta-B.C. district of the Lutheran Church-Canada.
Candido says residents don’t have to be Christian, be they Lutheran or any other denomination.
So what is the community of faith?
“It’s people coming together to form the old idea of community,” says Candido. “It’s people embracing community values where all faiths are welcomed and appreciated.
“It’s caring about your neighbour and being there for them.”
A helping-hands committee was initiated by residents of the complex rather than by village management, Candido adds.
Investment in housing jumped 4.9 per cent from the third quarter of last year to the third quarter of 2001, Statistics Canada reports.
The national statistical agency says $12.3 billion was invested in housing, with increases in new housing, renovations and acquisition costs.
Causes of the increase included steadily rising prices, the drop in mortgage rates and the low vacancies in multi-family housing.
StatsCan said new housing construction rose 5.6 per cent from the third quarter of 2000, with total investment of $6.4 billion.
Most of the growth went to new apartments, up 24.5 per cent to $992 million. Investment for building new single-family homes was up 3.1 per cent to $4.2 billion.
Renovations were up 3.5 per cent at $4.7 billion and acquisition costs were up 6.5 per cent to $1.2 billion, said the report.
Statistics Canada says that residential construction investment is divided into three main components – new housing construction, renovations and acquisition costs.
Acquisition costs are the value of services related to the sale of new housing such as tax, land development and service charges, and processing fees for mortgage insurance, and the premiums.
Quebec showed the largest increase in residential construction investment, with B.C. second.
Major downtown landlord Oxford Properties Group Inc. had third-quarter revenue 15 per cent higher this year than in 2001.
Its funds from operations were up eight per cent to 67 cents a share. This year Oxford has bought a one-third interest in the Telus Tower and a 50-per-cent stake in the Scotia Centre downtown.
Oxford was acquired by BPC Properties Ltd., an affiliate of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
International Properties Group has sold Kensington Gate, the last property in its revenue properties division.
Gross revenue from the sale of all properties was about $190 million, and management estimates the net cash proceeds will be $34 million, IPG said in a news release.
Web Watch:
www.princeofpeacevillage.com
www.omers.com
www.oxfordproperties.com
www.investorplus.com
