Vancouver city council has unanimously approved a rezoning request for a “transformative” project that’s now one step closer to two mixed-used towers that will expand Vancouver General Hospital’s campus footprint. The two structures on West 12th Ave. will add 280 long-term care beds, a daycare, retail, and clinical diagnostic and treatment space by the time the two-phase project is complete. “The timing of this is absolutely critical, we do need to move ahead,” said VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation president and CEO, Angela Chapman. British Columbia faces a dire shortage of long-term care beds for seniors requiring daily support, leading to delays throughout the hospital system as seniors wait weeks – or even months – for a permanent home. The foundation fundraised the cash to buy the city block across the street from VGH several years ago, and will now gear up to fundraise $150 million to begin construction of the first tower, which measures approximately half a million square feet. When that’s complete, residents from the neighbouring Windermere Care Residence will move in, followed by the demolition of that building for phase two. “There’s only so many capital dollars in the province to go around and we have to look for other alternative models for funding health-care infrastructure,” said Chapman of the philanthropic ownership model, one she believes could form a blueprint for new not-for-profit care homes in the future.
