ST. ANTHONY, N.L.
Plans for more new seniors housing are moving ahead in St. Anthony.
St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc. (SABRI) has reached an agreement with a local contractor, Strangemore’s Ltd., to demolish the abandoned Harriot Curtis Collegiate school property in order for the organization to construct accommodations for seniors.
Paul Dunphy, first vice-chair of SABRI’s board, revealed the news during the St. Anthony and Area Chamber of Commerce meeting on Nov 7.
Dunphy informed the chamber the accommodations would be geared towards seniors for rent.
Once the old school is removed, the organization will then be able to move forward with constructing cottages for seniors.
The property is located at 22 Tuckers Lane. It is near the hospital, post office and pharmacy, making it an ideal location for seniors housing.
Sam Elliott, executive director of SABRI, said the organization wants to use as much of the land as they can, to suit as much housing as possible.
“If we can get 30 units there, we’d love to, but we don’t want to say we’re going to do that because we don’t know what the land is going to be,” he told The Northern Pen.
Elliott says SABRI had an agreement in place with the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District to go ahead with the cottages once they had a deal with a contractor to demolish and remediate the school site.
“It’s a matter of taking over the property from the school board, for them to finalize and give us the keys and we’ll go,” he said.
As the population ages, new seniors housing has been in demand in the St. Anthony area.
The SABRI news comes after construction was completed on 10 two-bedroom units on Ollerhead Drive in St. Anthony earlier this year.
The project was completed by the St. Anthony Non-Profit Seniors Housing Complex committee, formed by the town of St. Anthony.
It received $1.25 million in funding from the federal and provincial government to complete the project.
Those units are expected to be open by 2019.
While the town’s project was for low income housing, Dunphy informed the Chamber of Commerce that SABRI will be looking to provide “something a little bit higher end.”
What is SABRI?
St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc. (SABRI) is a non-profit social enterprise that administers an allocation of northern shrimp on behalf of communities from Big Brook to Goose Cove.
SABRI is involved in a number of other projects, to facilitate the expansion of the region’s economic base and improve employment opportunities.
