After a COVID-19 pandemic-caused delay, a combination church and affordable housing development has officially opened.
Although services have been held at Brechin United Church since December, the grand opening and ribbon-cutting for the new church and adjoining five-story rental housing complex happened Saturday, April 29.
The old church was demolished in June 2018, creating space for a smaller church with a new apartment building, Residences at Brechin Hill. It has 74 units comprised of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Valerie Neilson and Randy Manikel, Brechin United redevelopment team co-chairs, said they are happy with the new place of worship.
“There’s a lot of subtle things, just like these decorative screens in front of the windows,” Manikel said. “At certain times of the day, the sun coming through it and casting a really nice shadow on the floor, it’s little subtleties like that, that really make it a very well-designed building.”
“We have a fully-accessible space … that has no stairs and no barriers for getting around,” said Neilson. “The other thing is the passive house designation – we have a much eco-friendlier building than our old one.”
While the church has decreased to 7,500 square feet, from 10,000 square feet, Manikel said it is suitable.
“It fits us because one room can lead into another and often, in our old building we had a huge sanctuary that wasn’t fully used on Sunday and the rest of the week, it sat empty,” said Manikel. “Here we can have an event every day and sometimes two or three.”
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Speaking at the ceremony, Theo Johnstone, a resident, expressed joy at his new apartment.
“This place feels a lot like a beautiful hotel,” he said. “I have a studio apartment, which has really good space for day-to-day living. The kitchen area is really big and the whole studio is a good size for me … for me this place feels like paradise.”
The original opening was scheduled for December 2019, but the pandemic altered that timeline for parishioners.
“It was one of many things,” said Manikel. “It was more of something that the congregation had to endure, not worshipping together and for our staff it was really hard.”
The B.C. government contributed $7.4 million for the project via B.C. Housing and will provide $704,000 annually for operations. Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA, appeared on behalf of B.C. Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon. She said facilities such as these are a necessity and she was impressed with a tour given while the facility was being built.
“The need for housing in Nanaimo is so deep and so to walk through the active construction site, with the congregation, who were so proud of what they’d done, I could tell it was going to be beautifully built, affordable to live in, with beautiful views,” Malcolmson told the News Bulletin. “Just dignified, respectful, badly needed housing.”
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