The plan to build affordable housing for workers in Rossland took another step forward last week.
The City of Rossland was awarded $97,919 to move the Emcon property project a little closer to shovel-ready status.
The money came from the province’s Rural Diversification Fund, at an announcement last Thursday.
“This is actually a fairly complex project we’re looking at here,” says Bryan Teasdale, the CAO for the City of Rossland. “This grant money adds to our pot, now we’ll sit down and finalize our numbers here.”
The money will be used complete architectural and schematic designs, working drawings and tender documents to redevelop the former highway works yard in the city into affordable housing and mixed-use commercial spaces.
While the city is spearheading the project, it’s partnered with a group called the Lower Columbia Affordable Housing Society, which will act as a landlord. The final building design has yet to be determined, and could include ground-level commercial space, or municipal offices, or any number of possibilities.
Teasdale says it’s unlikely that groundbreaking for what’s currently planned as a 24-unit, three-storey building will happen this year. While the grant from the Diversification Fund will help move the project forward, he says there’s still a lot of work to do, and money to be found.
“Our plan was to build it as soon as we can, because every year we delay the costs go up,” he says. “We’d kind of like to get it tendered to start by the end of of this year, but that’s pushing it pretty hard. That obviously is a high priority for the city to get the tenders let and work started in 2020 or 2021.
“But there’s still a lot up in the air for the project because there are so many people involved.”
The cost currently estimated at $9.1 million, and much of the construction funding still has to be secured.
The money for the Emcon lot housing was one of nine project grants worth more than $1.1 approved for the West Kootenay region.
reporter@rosslandnews.com
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