Grande Prairie City Council gave the green light to a longtime project and goal, in the development of a housing facility in Grande Prairie’s Smith subdivision.
The partnership project between the Grande Spirit Foundation and BA Leasing Incorporated will take up around four acres of land near the Activity and Reception Centre and will see a 160-unit apartment building, with 30 per cent of the units being affordable housing.
The project has been on council’s radar since 2014 and GSF CAO Steve Madden says construction could start in a matter of weeks as most of the planning and designing phase has already been completed.
“Here we are 10 years later putting together an affordable housing project on that land,” he says. “They’re quite a ways along on the actual development itself expecting to have the development permit very shortly, so there’s a lot of progress already completed.”
“I think council wanted to see one for many years, and we’re finally getting to that finish line.”
Affordable housing has been a top priority for council for years now, with city officials suggesting the city’s vacancy rate has been observed to be as low as zero per cent. As such, Madden says the hope is to get shovels in the ground as soon as possible, with hopes to have occupancy in the new facility in 2026.
“It’s a small start, but it’s where we need to go with the community as it grows,” he says.
The GSF is known for providing lodging for seniors and retirees; however, the CAO says an often-forgotten statistic is the roughly 2,000 families his foundation looks after. Madden adds that as the waitlist for applicants swells to around 800, the need for affordable housing is paramount as the city continues to grow.
“Those are sometimes missed and the Grande Spirit Foundation is quite large when it comes to family housing, so that building would actually represent all different age groups,” he says.
The facility will see 160 units constructed, complete with underground parking for renters.
