Jim Reidy looks out tall glass windows on the top floor of The Vista in Esquimalt, his new home, and can’t help but chuckle.
“I call it a cruise ship on land,” said the 87-year-old retired entrepreneur, who operated Dairy Queen franchises for decades in Victoria, White Rock and Calgary before retiring in 2018.
Indeed, the view from the 11th floor is panoramic, taking in the naval base, downtown Victoria and a wide swath of the Pacific waterfront.
A piano player is in the Fred and Ginger Lounge. There’s a café , tea room and a fitness facility, along with quiet spaces like the Hemingway Library, not to mention a theatre with movies most nights.
The sense of cruising is enhanced by a sudden blanket of fog moving slowly along on Thursday afternoon.
“I really have everything I need here,” Reidy said. “The food is great and I’ve really met some nice people. It’s very sociable.”
Reidy is one of the newest residents of the 11-storey Vista, a resort-inspired community developed by Brentwood Bay-based developer Avenir Senior Living. The complex at 622 Admirals Rd. threw a grand-opening party on Thursday, marking the end of a four-year journey for Avenir principal Jason Craik.
He said The Vista was designed to provide a continuum of care for seniors, and that’s what makes The Vista a special place.
“As your needs change, the staff evolves their services to support your transitions.”
That can mean everything from meals for independent seniors to providing 48 “memory care units” for those with dementia, said Craik.
The vision of The Vista is that residents can come in as independent seniors and then “age in place,” said Craik. “They can buy a suite or be a renter and everyone is offered supportive living services as they need.”
Craik said there are floors for complex care and dementia, so if a spouse needs additional care, they don’t have to move to another building. “They can be here with you.”
Reidy said his wife, Marge, who is also 86 but suffering from dementia, currently lives in Sandringham Age Care on Fort Street but he hopes she will eventually move into The Vista with him.
He lives in a one-bedroom suite with a full kitchen, modern appliances (which he’s still trying to figure out, he said with a laugh), washer and dryer and other amenities you would find in a modern condo. “I’m very self-sufficient,” he said.
Craik said the age-in-place model is one seniors and their families are increasingly seeking. “They don’t want to have to move when they reach a certain age,” he said. “You add care, that’s more staffing, but we see it as a big benefit for the residents.”
Family-owned Avenir has spent 25 years developing seniors-care facilities with independent and assisted living, and more recently care for people with dementia, in the Lower Mainland, Nanaimo and the U.S. It also has a condominium project aimed at middle-income earners in the planning stages in Esquimalt.
“We’re a family business and that why we’re in it,” said Craik. “We had our grandparents in homes and we’d say: ‘We’re going to come and pick you up and go out for dinner.’ Now we’re saying we want to come there for dinner. We want to make these homes feel like home.”
The Vista has about 100 staff, and is expected to soon have a ground-floor pharmacy. The Royal Canadian Legion, which originally owned the property and sold it to the developers, will be moving in early in the new year.
The Esquimalt Dockyard branch of the legion closed its doors after 46 years at 622 Admirals Rd. in 2018.
Founded in 1944, the branch was in two other locations prior to moving into the Admirals Road building in 1972, but the large building needed repairs and was costly to maintain, and the branch was losing money.
That’s when the branch signed up with another developer, which was going to construct a seniors highrise and include space for the branch. But the arrangement foundered and the parties went to arbitration and then to the Supreme Court of B.C. After Avenir stepped in, the court cases were discontinued.
The branch’s debt was eliminated thanks to Avenir, a legion spokesman said in 2018.
It paid off the $1.5-million mortgage and provided about $100,000 to pay back branch members who had loaned funds to keep the branch running and the staff paid, the spokesman said.
Chris Perry, a representative of the legion, said the new facility on the ground floor is only about a quarter of the size of the old building, but it’s a modern space that will be able to seat about 140 people. The branch had been based out of the Chief and Petty Officers Mess at CFB Esquimalt. The Dockyard branch has about 400 paid members, said Perry, an increase of about 100 over the past year.
The Vista, initially projected to cost $80 million, wasn’t an easy project. The shovels hit the ground in 2019 as COVID-19 was unfolding and the company hit all of the hurdles caused by the pandemic, including labour and material shortages and increasing costs associated with supply-chain issues.
“But here we are,” said Craik, who did not disclose final construction cost. “It’s been a long time, but I’d say it’s been worth it.”
