Nipawin Assisted Living facility moves forward

The Nipawin Assisted Living facility continues to move in the right direction, as they spoke about their future plans at an open house held at the Senior's Hall in Nipawin last week.

The open house was an informational session for the public, which saw about 150 people attend.

The developers of the new facility were on hand to give presentations at both 5:30 and 7:30, which highlighted its size, location the cost for development as well as how much apartments will cost.

The facility will cost about $8.5 million to develop, though, prior to development they will need to raise $3 million, which is equal to 30 investors, investing $100,000.

The cost to rent an apartment in the facility will be range from $1,600 to $3,200 a month, depending on how many people, and the size of the room.

There are no units available to purchase.

The facility will be one storey, with 37 units, including one guest suite. Apartments will range from one bedroom, two bedrooms or studio. All meals will be provided to tenants, heavy laundry (bedding/towels) will be done for residents, as well as light housekeeping. Laundry facilities will be located onsite as well.

Hughene Day, chairperson for the Nipawin Assisted Living, said that the building features a lot of common area, which will include a chapel, library, living room and so on.

"The apartments themselves aren't huge. The idea of the facility is to encourage people to come out and visit and socialize. To come out and visit with the others and have their meals with one another," said Day.

The location of the facility will be across from the Nipawin Hospital and Pineview Lodge.

"If you look up there now you can see the stakes where it's been marked," said Day.

The land was donated by the Warren family.

For the committee this day has been a long time coming. They have been diligently working on the project for about six years, and hope to be able to get construction going by September. The start of construction will depend on how much they are able to raise.

Once construction begins, it will take about a year and a half until it is complete.

"There's been a lot of interest in this facility and we're extremely excited about the response and the interest from investors," said Day.

The facility is for those who are not quite ready for long-term care and who are no longer able to live at places such as Jubilee Place and Cedar Manor.

"What we're really looking to do is help to improve the quality of life for people."

The facility currently has no name, once the investors are in place the company will change hands and the investors will become the owners. Once that has been achieved, the investors will be able to determine a name.

For more information, or for enquiries into renting a unit from the Nipawin Assisted Living facility, contact Gar Williams, Karen Grayson or Hughene Day.

The committee will host another open house in the middle of May, to provide more information and up-to-date developments with the new facility.