New condo project highlights housing needs

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This article was published 17/11/2010 (5464 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A proposed $7-million condo development on a long vacant strip of land on Greenway Crescent will address the need for transitional housing for St. James’ aging population, proponents say.

Construction is expected to begin next spring on Sunpoint Condominiums, a three-story, 32-suite building that will be built on Greenway Crescent near the Superstore location on Portage Avenue.

“There’s a demand from people who want to sell their houses and stay in the neighbourhood, but they don’t have that many options. Developments are just not happening,” said Bill Coady, vice-president and general manager of Sunstone Resort Communities, the project’s developer.

“They’ve lived in St. James for a long time, they don’t want to leave St. James, but they do want to leave their house. It’s really an opportunity to fill that demand that’s got to be given to people who want to sell.”

The project is expected to cost about $7 million. Suites will range in price from $180,000 to $210,000. Most of them will have two bedrooms, and will be modeled after similar condo projects built by Sunstone in Lindenwoods and St. Vital.

St. Charles is Winnipeg’s oldest ward with 33% of its population over the age of 60. Like other neighbourhoods, it’s grappling with a low vacancy rate around 1.2%.

With a lack of new housing developments and little room for infill housing, older homeowners have little choice but to remain in their current domiciles.

“Westwood and Crestview and Heritage are full of citizens who’ve lived in their houses since 1968,” said Coun. Grant Nordman (St. Charles). “Their mortgage is paid off, and they want to get equity out of their home but want to stay in the community.”

Nordman said the province’s strict rent control guidelines are hampering efforts to build transitional housing developments in the area for senior’s ready to downsize their homes. This is ultimately preventing young families from moving in, he said.

“No developer wants to put up an apartment block because they won’t make any money,” he said. “Most of these homes are designed for mom, dad, three kids and the dog.

“When seniors sell their homes, they leave that home open to a younger family that will come in and raise their kids who will go to local schools. They’ll shop at the locals merchants. It revives the community economy.”

Coady said only seven units in the proposed development have been pre-sold thus far, all of them to empty nesters.

“Those are the kinds of people we’ve been meeting — people who don’t want the maintenance anymore, they don’t want to redo their roof,” he said. “The last guy who bought (a suite), spends five months of the year in Texas, so he got the smallest suite we had and that’s good for him.”

The development will be situated on a piece of land that used to be home to a used car dealership. The property has been vacant for most of the past decade.

A new credit union was recently built near the location, and another commercial building — possibly a small strip mall or a medical clinic, according to Coady — is expected to occupy the rest of the space.

For more information, visit www.sunpointcondos.ca.

matt.preprost@canstarnews.com