the company pitched the idea of working
collaboratively on the project. Profit was
not the focus of this project for the CDSS-
AB, said Landers. Rather, it was getting the
project off paper and into brick-and-mortar
reality in order to address the gap in se-
nior housing. Nonetheless, the building
needed to be constructed as efficiently as
possible in order to meet operating costs
afterwards.
“What we've done is try to work on proj-
ects that meet local needs that are also fi-
nancially sustainable,” Landers said. Since
the municipalities have little funds to de-
vote to social and housing services, ap-
proaching new projects using a business
model is especially important. Such a mod-
el had already worked successfully when
the CDSSAB built housing for at-risk indi-
viduals experiencing and/or fleeing from
domestic violence in Timmins. That facility
was built in a way that leveraged assets to
bring down costs so that the housing itself
would be affordable without being subsi-
dized by the municipality.
In this case, CGV Builders put up the capi-
DECEMBER 2016
H
business elite canada 93
