Hope Centre

LOCATION
6750 West Coast Road
Sooke, BC

CLIENT
M’akola Housing Society/Saint Vincent de Paul/BC Housing/ESDC

DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION
Completed

SITE SIZE
12,344 sf

BUILDING SIZE
4-story – 21,431 sf

25 units (18 bachelor, 7 one-bedroom)
Commercial Space – 3,122 sf

TOTAL BUDGET
$6 million

DESIGN TEAM
Joe Newell Architect

Hope Centre, at 6750 West Coast Road was a successful partnership between Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Vancouver Island (SSVP) and M’akola Housing Society to build a mixed-use building with 25 affordable units and non-profit office spaces as well as ground-floor thrift store.  For this initial project, MDS was able to help M’akola and Saint Vincent de Paul set up a partnership protocol and joint venture agreement, pull together funding/financing from four different levels of government (federal, provincial, regional and municipal) as well as some more traditional third-party lending in order to create this mixed-use partnership project. The building was completed and operational in 2015. 

In 2021, M’akola Development Services facilitated the sale of Hope Centre to BC Housing to assist the province’s efforts to provide more supportive housing in Sooke. The commercial space in the building was renovated to increase the number of units in the building and it now provides 33 supportive units for people experience or at risk of homelessness and a service hub on the ground floor with six shelter beds, programming space for training and outreach services as well as a commercial kitchen. M’akola Housing Society is reinvesting the proceeds from their portion of the sale into an upcoming redevelopment in Sooke at 2170 Charters Rd which will provide 75 new affordable rental homes to people with low and moderate incomes.

MDS SERVICES

• Partnership protocol and joint venture agreement 
• Feasibility analysis 
• Funding/Financing applications 
• Zoning and OCP approvals  
• Development and construction analysis and planning 
• Procurement and Contract management 
• Operating Management Plans and Procedures 
• Strata Corporation management  
• Purchase and Sale negotiations 
• Renovations 
• Communications 

FUNDING PARTNERS

• Government of Canada Homelessness Partnership Strategy: $1.8 M
• BC Housing Grant: $1 Million
• CRD Regional Housing Trust Fund: $375,000
• District of Sooke: $83,462
• CMHC Seed Funding: $10,000
• BC Housing Community Partnership Initiative: Construct and take-out
• Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Vancouver Island: $375,500 (land contribution)