Mattawa’s Rosemount Valley Suites is for sale. The municipally owned building at 231 Tenth Street, is an affordable seniors’ housing complex with 29 units. The town purchased the complex in 2019 and spent two years converting the building into housing. In May of 2022, Rosemount Valley Suites opened its doors, and the rooms filled fast – there is currently a waiting list of 36 people who want to move in.
Now the town is selling.
“That was always the plan,” explained Mayor Raymond Bélanger. The project began during the last term of council, and the original idea was to complete the project and put it on the market. “They didn’t receive any funding to do it,” he explained, “so this project was built on the backs of our taxpayers.”
That price was just shy of six million, as $5,920,400 was spent on renovations.
There was a need for affordable housing within the community, and council helped alleviate that need, the mayor noted, however, “we’re not landlords.” The town has put out a call for expressions of interest from potential buyers, and from there, a price will be negotiated. Currently, no selling price is listed.
See: Mattawa sharpens the scissors for ribbon cutting at Rosemount Valley Suites
Council is looking toward the private sector and the not-for-profit sector. Another option might be to form a municipal non-profit to own and operate the property.
However, the goal is to sell. And the mayor assured that the units will remain affordable for residents.
“The Affordable Senior Housing Committee, along with council, will make sure to include very strong conditions that it remains senior housing and that it remains affordable,” Mayor Bélanger said.
“We’re not selling for the sake of selling, and we want to do the right thing.”
There is no fire sale on the building. If a suitable buyer does not come along this summer, the municipality is able to wait until one does. Once sold, the municipality will have more funds to work on other projects, perhaps a Main Street renovation, the mayor noted, or maybe another housing project similar to Rosemount.
“Rosemount Valley Suites was needed,” the mayor said, “and we established it as a town. It’s there, and we did a super job. Now, we have to move on from it and tackle another project.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
