It was the most gorgeous location. An apartment suite looking out across the river, supermarkets and pharmacies a short walking distance, and an affordable home to share with her family. Ruth Vivian was sold on her retirement home in the St. Albert Lions Village.
It was the most gorgeous location.
An apartment suite looking out across the river, supermarkets and pharmacies a short walking distance, and an affordable home to share with her family.
Ruth Vivian was sold on her retirement home in the St. Albert Lions Village.
Then came a letter in July, explaining that the apartment complex will not be built. A cheque returning her $10,000 deposit was included.
“Now we are back to square one,” she says. “We start all over on where we are going to retire. We would have been happy to move there any day.”
Lions Village of Greater Edmonton Society bought the site at 2 Inglewood Dr. in 2010. The Village was supposed to be an affordable retirement complex with 120 independent-living units.
Amenities were to include a staff nurse to help residents access health services in the community, a wine-making facility, beauty salon, craft rooms and exercise equipment.
Residents were expected to move in the spring of 2011. That date was later moved to 2012, and then to 2014.
The Lions cited numerous reasons for the delay, including a late start on the show suite's construction and lack of a joint-equity partner.
They also wanted at least 75 per cent of the building leased before starting construction.
In Nov. 2011, a groundbreaking ceremony was held. The Lions had decided to build on their own. Not much has happened on the site since.
“It was gradually becoming apparent that they were having difficulty getting the mortgage and at one point they were requesting that everybody would increase the amount of the deposit,” says Vivian.
“I think the bankers wanted them to have more money on deposit before they would approve a mortgage. And my personal opinion was ‘no, you are not getting any more money from me.'”
Vivian had applied for a unit in early 2013.
That made her one of the later buyers, she says. Other people had already asked to get their deposit back by then, unable to wait any longer to move into a retirement home.
At age 65, it's not pressing for her or her husband to move right away, she says.
But their St. Albert home is already too big. And their daughter, bound to a wheelchair and living with her parents, requires a home that's on one level, she says. Not to mention that some age-related health issues also plague Vivian, she says.
“Unfortunately a lot of the new condo developments are quite expensive,” she says. “And a lot of things that are being built are still two-storey, which, gee, is utter foolishness if you are looking at a retirement population.”
The Village would have been perfectly priced for the Vivians.
Units in the building were to range in value from about $275,000 to $389,000. A different, newer condominium in the city would have cost her as much as her house is worth now, she says. That's not feasible, she says.
Unlike traditional purchases or rental transactions, the Lions also employ a life-lease model whereby residents provide a loan for a percentage of the value of their unit, she says.
Monthly payments are determined by the amount of the loan given by residents – the higher the equity, the lower the payments, and vice versa.
When residents want to leave, they provide notice and get back an amount ranging from 97 per cent to 100 per cent of what they put in, depending on how long they've lived in the unit.
That means residents do not make any money if their unit grows in value, but neither do they lose money, she says.
“The majority of seniors are not particularly looking to make a fortune on real estate,” says Vivian. “They are looking for a permanent roof over their head.”
While she was told that 80 per cent of the units had sold when she invested in the project, the numbers must have fluctuated as potential residents came and went, she says.
When she was told that construction costs may increase, she knew something was up, she says. But since they did not desperately need to move they had decided to see what happens next, she says.
Now they will have to look for a new retirement home, preferably one that's already built, she says.
“We were involved (with the Lions Village) for approximately one and a half years,” she says. “It is a long time but I guess one thing it taught me is whatever I decide to do I want to see bricks and mortar first.”
The Lions Village of Greater Edmonton Society has not returned repeated phone calls from the St. Albert Gazette for this story.
