After almost three years, the construction on the Cold Lake Lodge has a conclusion date in sight.
The project has reached substantial completion, meaning it's close to being finished.
"Right now, staff are in the building... getting trained on the new equipment. We're just waiting for some furniture to come in, and the building is starting to take shape," explained Chris Vining, chair for the Lakeland Lodge and Housing Foundation.
Vining said the first tenants could start unpacking in mid-March.
"We'll get all of our current residents... all moved in there first, and we will start contacting our clients that are on our waiting list that are waiting for rooms. We'll start processing their applications, and getting them moved in," he explained, adding roughly 30 new occupants will be added to the 33 presently in the lodge.
For current tenant Bette Beattie, the news that her apartment was almost ready was exciting.
"The rooms that we have in the lodge here really aren't big enough to spend any length of time in, and the accommodations over in the new lodge are excellent," she expressed.
Beattie is waiting for the word on when she can relocate into her new room and said she was "fortunate to be given a room with a view of the lake."
The new building will replace the existing 43-year-old facility located on 12 St., and will see an increase of 61 rooms from 48. The spaces are jumping in size to 360 sq. ft. compared to the old rooms at 120 sq. ft. While the original facility isn't in bad condition, the apartment sizes are unsuitable for seniors to live in due to their lack of space.
"The living experience for our residents is going to be massively upgraded from where we are right now... Our beautiful little village that we have, the staff has put a lot of care and attention into it, but the new one is going to be a substantial upgrade. We're just going to be able to do way more for our residents in the new building," detailed Vining.
Through the Alberta Social Housing Agreement, the province contributed $8.7-million for the project. An additional $5.7-million was included from the provincial and federal governments through the Investment in Affordable Housing Agreement. The tender was awarded to Seko Construction at a cost of $13.3-million in 2015. The project officially broke ground in 2016.
Once the new building is complete, it can fit up to 70 occupants.
"We'll able to clear the waiting list off without too many issues... There's potential to have a few people waiting for units once we get it all full, but I think we'll be really close," Vining detailed, noting there's around 40 seniors waiting for a room.
Although there wasn't anything out of the ordinary causing the delay for the project, he noted they ran into a number of issues over the course of construction. The lodge was originally slated to be completed in early 2018.
"It was one of those (situations) that kept delaying things, and there was a lot of frustrations at the time. We're almost a year and a half past when we initially anticipated being able to get into the building, but, at the same time, the finished product is making you kind of forget about the wait."
Vining expressed his thanks to everyone waiting for construction to wrap-up.
"The patience of, not only the seniors that are currently in the residence that have been patiently waiting and looking out the windows at the building taking shape, but also the neighbours and community members around us that have been... living in a construction zone for a lot longer than they planned on living around one."
The fate of the old lodge is currently unknown. Since the Lakeland Lodge and Housing Foundation only manages the building, it's up to the province on what to do with it.
"They're currently figuring that out, but we haven't really received any direction for that other than just to secure, lock-up, and monitor," Vining said.
The province has yet to do an assessment on what their next steps should be.
