By Dominic Abassi

Provincial funding helps private developer bring affordable housing project to Nanaimo

Nov 14, 2018 | 5:29 PM

NANAIMO — A private land owner is putting affordability over profit with a new project proposed for Nanaimo.

Empresa Properties’ affordable rental housing project at the corner of Bowen Rd. and Meredith Rd. was one of three Nanaimo proposals to earn millions of dollars in provincial funding this week.

Luke Harrison, a partner with Empresa, said they bought the property from the City earlier this year and made the choice to apply to the province’s newly created Community Housing Fund Program. They will team up with Ontario-based construction company EllisDon on the build.

“I want to make sure we’re doing housing that’s in need and of good utility to the people that are working and living in that city,” Harrison told NanaimoNewsNOW. “This site is close to transit and another project operated by (Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society) and it ticked a lot of the boxes that would allow for a project to be affordable.”

Harrison was born and raised in Nanaimo and spent the last number of years working within the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency, a municipal entity within the City of Vancouver designed to oversee affordable housing developments on city-owned land. He will leave that role shortly to pursue a private sector position.

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Harrison conceded there is significantly more profit in other types of residential developments, like the strata condo model popular with many current and past Nanaimo projects.

“Return is not the most important thing always on these projects. When you’re thinking about the need in Nanaimo, that was as important to us on the site as anything else.”

Empresa and EllisDon’s first affordable housing foray into the Nanaimo market will be operated by the Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society, who manage an existing facility directly across the street from the lot at 2103 Bowen Rd.

Harrison said it’s unclear at this point exactly how many units will be in the development or what type of clientele it will be geared towards. The province’s announcement said $3.6 million would help create 36 units on the site for seniors and families.

Similar undertakings could be in the works in the future, Harrison said.

“We are very interested in making sure we can create housing for people who work in Nanaimo and are generating incomes there so if there’s ways to do more housing that meets this acute need, that’s the focus.”

Two other Nanaimo projects received provincial funding on Tuesday.

Sixty-two units for seniors will be added to Woodgrove Senior Citizens Housing Society’s sites on Seafield Cres. near the hospital thanks to $6.2 million from the province.

A 23-unit Vancouver Island Mental Health Society project on Rosehill St. was also listed in the announcement, but the $2.3 million was already pledged by the province in 2016.

The Ministry of Housing said the definition of “affordable housing” is based on the premise rent does not exceed 30 per cent of income.

The Ministry said 70 per cent of units will pay a rent-geared-to-income rate and 30 per cent will pay market rents considered affordable to “moderate income households.”

While there is no timeline for construction of the Nanaimo projects, the Ministry expected they would be built over the next two-to-three years.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi