Redeveloping older infrastructure

Part of a push to increase availability, modernize design and improve safety across Ontario’s long-term care sector, a redeveloped Elmwood Place set to open this fall

Photo: Revera’s new Elmwood Place facility being built at 3400 Morgan Avenue

MISSISSAUGA-BASED REVERA INC., an owner, investor developer and operator in the senior living sector, is on track to open the redeveloped Elmwood Place Long Term Care Home in London this fall.

The current Elmwood Place facility, situated at 46 Elmwood Place West, will be replaced by the new Elmwood Place being built at 3400 Morgan Avenue. This marks the company’s first long-term care redevelopment project to break ground in Ontario.

Construction at the south end facility began last January. Designed to accommodate 128 residents — 50 more than its previous license — the new Elmwood Place facility is being built to modern design and safety standards, and according to the company, will feature “more natural light, wider hallways, better airflow and temperature control, more space for amenities and improved technology to support connectivity.”

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The new facility will feature four “home areas,” the company says, with 32 residents in each, in an effort to “foster a neighbourhood environment within the residence’s greater home community.”

Revera is undertaking similar redevelopments of existing homes with new facilities being built in Carlton Place, Cornwall and Ottawa, and others planned in Exbridge and Elmvale.

While the push to modernize design and improve safety across Ontario’s long-term care sector predated the pandemic, the plan was helped when the province reformed its long-term care funding system — a change that added around $9 million to Elmwood Place’s public funding.

In March, the Ontario government announced an investment of $933 million in 80 new long-term care projects, which will lead to thousands of additional new and upgraded long-term care spaces across the province. In addition to modernizing the long-term care sector, the projects will add 7,510 new spaces and upgrade 4,197 spaces, helping to reduce waitlists and end hallway medicine. This investment also supports key government priorities, including providing new spaces for Indigenous, Francophone and other cultural community residents.
The federal government has also signalled its plan to update long-term care safety standards in the coming years in response to the pandemic.

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“Revera is proud to serve the evolving needs of current and future generations of seniors through purpose-built redevelopment projects like London’s beautiful Elmwood Place,” says Thomas G. Wellner, president and CEO of Revera. “We are pleased with the opportunity to work alongside the Ministry of Long-Term Care to redevelop our older long term care homes, creating bright, safe and welcoming communities for older adults across Ontario.” Kieran Delamont