A $250-million, three-building development for seniors has been proposed for North Surrey.
On Wednesday, the WestStone Group (WestStone) announced its plans to build Innovation Village on a newly acquired parcel of land located on King George Boulevard adjacent to Surrey Memorial Hospital (SMH).
Situated in the area designated as Innovation Boulevard, and anchored by SMH and Simon Fraser University (SFU), Innovation Village will provide living space, health care technology and patient solutions for seniors.
The 5.1 acres (222,329 square feet) of land will consist of two six-storey wood frame buildings for seniors living independently, as well as a 12-storey concrete mixed-use medical building featuring complex care and assisted-living for seniors, a medical research centre and medical offices. All three buildings will provide almost 556,000 square feet of living and working space.
SMH, the hub for the 40-acre Surrey Health Campus, is home to more than 6,000 medical professionals and thousands of medical and nursing students, and has recently undergone a $512-million expansion.
“Surrey is B.C.’s fastest growing city, and with that comes a need for living space and medical resources for its rapidly aging population,” said Robert Dominick, vice-president of WestStone Group. “Space for seniors independent living and medical research is becoming increasingly dire. The proposed development will provide 202 seniors' living units and 220 complex care and assisted-living units for our seniors.”
The existing site has been the subject of flooding issues due to a collapsed culvert built in the 1960s. As part of the redevelopment plan, WestStone will rebuild and enhance the creek, return 1.35 acres of public park land to the City of Surrey and provide a transition channel to spawning salmon which has been inaccessible for the past three decades.
The proposed development will be scooter friendly, completely accessible and located immediately adjacent to the expected light rail transit station (LRT) being built by the City of Surrey as part of its transit plan.
The site at 9525 King George Blvd. currently houses a trailer park. The park’s tenants were notified of the development permit application this week.