Canadore College nears completion of redeveloping 40-year-old student townhouses

Canadore College is pushing forward on its housing strategy at a rapid pace. The school is working to re-develop its residence townhouses known as The Greens.

A project years in the making, school officials said Wednesday it’s only a matter of months until the townhouses, located at the main campus on College Drive will be completed

“I’d never thought I’d see the day,” said Shawn Chorney, the school’s vice-president strategic infrastructure, Indigenous and learner services. “Here we are and they’re beautiful.”

Built in 1971, students called The Greens home for 40 years before they were decommissioned in 2011-2012 due to reconstruction costs.

The school acknowledged the issues at the beginning of the fall semester when students struggled to find available accommodations. In spring 2022, a housing task force was formed to find solutions to the housing shortage and the committee re-examined The Greens.

“What we’re doing is moving on and learning about inventories in the community and we’re building. We’re not going to sit around,” Chorney said.

A project years in the making, school officials said Wednesday it’s only a matter of months until the townhouses, located at the main campus on College Drive will be completed. (Eric Taschner/CTV News)

“We looked at how we could get student beds up and running as fast as we could.”

The school’s housing strategy also includes finding living spaces off campus. The college leased the former North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit building on Commercial Street, where it created 21 residential rooms.

The off-campus housing apartments will also be used for new employees who require temporary housing when relocating to North Bay. An additional 80 beds are coming beside it next fall in another housing project.

“We’re excited to see the students call these buildings home,” said Chorney.

Canadore Student Council is supportive of the rebuild as it heard about housing issues loud and clear, in particular from international students.

“They had initial difficulty finding them (beds). But later on, they sorted out their issues,” said Canadore College student council vice-president Alex Mathew.

“They approached the college and the college sorted out the issues.”

At The Greens re-development, 19 townhouses are being renovated in a $10 million project. Each unit has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, storage space, a kitchen and living room. The first students will be moving in during the Christmas holidays, while others will be arriving in the New Year.

As part of the school’s housing strategy, the units can be turned into affordable housing for seniors should the school need to pivot when studying enrolment numbers.

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“The bedrooms are larger than most. They’re what you’d see in a standard residential home,” said Chorney.

The entire redevelopment should be complete in March.