Nelson’s Railtown district is about to look at little different, with a six-storey, 55-unit workforce housing complex looking to break ground.
The Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce is hoping to develop the proposal, in partnership with the City of Nelson and BC Housing.
The development would see the housing complex built beside the Nelson Innovation Centre at 91 Baker Street.
Nelson City Councillors approved multiple development variance permits for the proposed project in council on Tuesday.
Executive Director of the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce, Tom Thomson, said the Chamber has wanted to introduce a workforce housing solution to the community for many years.
However, thanks to Premier Eby’s BC Builds program, Thomson said barriers that were in place preventing such developments have been significantly reduced.
“One of the reasons why a lot of apartments or purpose-built rental housing haven’t been completed since probably the 1980s is because of a lot of those same challenges of you can’t make it very profitable with high interest rates or high borrowing rates for a builder,” he said.
“Providing lower interest loans to make the building process go by more efficiently makes it a bit more attractive for a group or an organization, non-profit or a municipality to try to say we’ve got land available and let’s try to make this work.”
The Chamber has been working closely with BC Builds since last August to get preliminary approval for the project, which hasn’t happened yet.
There are still a few hurdles to overcome. Thomson said the Chamber is working closely with regulatory officials with the Ministry of Environment and neighboring property owners to mitigate all concerns before seeking preliminary and ultimately final project approval, which they hope to secure in the next several months.
The proposed development would feature a concrete podium with two commercial units and parking. Above the podium, a five-storey prefabricated modular design will feature 55 workforce residential housing units.
The suites include 10 studio suites, 31 one-bedroom suites, and 15 two-bedroom suites with on-site parking for all 55 units.
The housing strategy will be modelled after a concept called Workforce Housing Solutions Inc. The concept is relatively new in BC and would see local businesses take out a head lease of the units.
“You could have a company say ‘we want to have five apartments available so that we can have some of our employees living in those units’, so then, the company would take out a head lease and then they would lease them back to their employees.”
“If a two-bedroom was $2,000, the company would have a business expense of $2,000 and the employee would pay the lease and they’d basically be paying $2,000 for the space,” explained Thomson.
If approved, the project would be a rapid build comprised of modular units. BC Builds classifies a rapid build as a housing development that goes from concept to construction within 18 months, nearly twice as fast as usual and slightly challenging to achieve, according to Thomson.
“It’s challenging because it’s probably twice as fast as most projects go. But we’ve been working fairly diligently with BC Builds, our project development team, and officials from the City of Nelson, and we meet every three weeks to try and hit all of the deadlines that we’ve established at the beginning of the project and we’re doing quite well.”
The proposed development aligns with the city’s official community plan, which encourages affordable multi-use housing in areas without steep slopes within a reasonable walking distance of services.
Something going on in your part of the Kootenays you think people should know about? Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
