SHERBROOKE — The Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s is snapping up the former House of Jade restaurant property at the intersection of Highway 7 and Sonora Road as part of a long-term plan to boost housing availability for seniors, singles and young families in the area.
“We are excited to obtain this property,” Warden James Fuller said in a May 21 municipal press release. “We anticipate adding six to eight housing units with an eye towards affordability and accessibility.”
While he did not disclose the purchase price, Fuller told The Journal in an interview following the announcement that the deal – expected to close “anywhere from the end of the month to the next month” – will hopefully serve as the foundation for new targeted rental housing.
“There are senior couples in town, around the municipality, that just can’t manage their large house anymore, [and are] looking for somewhere to go ... [many] are on a fixed income,” he said. “There’s [also] people that drive for employment here, they drive at least an hour every day, one way or to and fro. We could offer an opportunity there.”
Although the development will not be designated as “affordable housing,” he emphasized that affordability and accessibility are guiding principles. “It’s not mandated affordable housing. It’s something we are [working toward]. We want to make sure it is.”
The site, located near Sherbrooke’s core services, offers convenient access to shops and restaurants. The municipality has no plans to reuse the existing building. “We are actually not looking at [that],” Fuller said. “It would have to be [larger] to put six houses in there.”
Instead, the plan is to build new homes that blend with Sherbrooke’s architectural character. “The final project is not going to be some boxy thing. It’s going to match the ambience of Sherbrooke,” he said. “Look at some of the houses around there – cedar shingles, decent paint jobs, nice clapboard. It’s going to add to the attractiveness of Main Street.”
The development will also be low-density. “We’re not looking at a high-rise,” Fuller said. “There [won’t] be a lot of units available, but we want to make them available for people who actually need them … young couples without a million-dollar inheritance.”
The next step, he said, will be issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to attract developers. “As part of this project, the municipality will be seeking developers who will share our vision of providing housing units that are custom designed for seniors, singles, and young families,” Fuller stated in the release. “The municipality urges developers who may be interested to watch for our RFP and the incentives [we] will have to offer.”
St. Mary’s is working with Dartmouth-based ZZAP Architecture and Planning – a firm with a background in rural housing development and which previously consulted on a larger housing concept for Old Road Hill – to guide site planning and project design.
To support the early phases of the development, the municipality has secured more than $62,000 from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund. “That’s going to be [going to] planning and engineering and those kinds of studies,” Fuller said. “We may not use all of that for this particular property, but it is available.”
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Housing Accelerator Fund is a $4.4-billion federal program launched in 2023 to help municipalities cut red tape, reform zoning and fast-track housing development. The initiative aims to support the creation of at least 100,000 new homes in the short term and up to 750,000 over the next decade.
Construction on the new development is expected to begin immediately after the deal closes, and a developer is selected. Asked when he’d like to see the first shovels in the ground, Fuller didn’t hesitate. “Like three years ago,” he said. “I would hope [we] begin construction before the fall.”
