Love, dignity, and hope.
Those are three words you will hear often when talking to those at Indwell, and something that came up frequently as myFM took a tour of their latest affordable housing project in the heart of Downtown Simcoe known as the Dogwood Suites.
Formerly called the Norfolk Inn, the building itself has a very long history in the community.
At one time a hub for night time activity with Marco’s, Gatsby’s, and The Whip – it slowly faded from it’s glory days into a vacant commercial lot in the heart of Simcoe with rooms available to rent or live in above.
It even had it’s share of legal drama as it was put up for sale from the county, as the owner did not pay back taxes on the building, and a business put in an offer.
Those owners, however, were able to pay back what was owed on the building within the determined timeline and took back possession – leading to a legal battle between the county and the developer who believes he was entitled to the property.
After sitting vacant for a while longer, the building was eventually sold to Indwell – a group that operated Hambleton Hall in Simcoe (which features 35 studio and one-bedroom apartments as well as five transitional apartments.)
Back in 2019, they opened their doors for one last tour of the former Norfolk Inn as a goodbye to the community before it’s big transformation.
This tour showed people just how bad it was inside the building and the living condition for those inside with paint peeling off of walks and visible mold.
Work got underway, but then a pandemic hit and other delays occurred pushing the project further and further back.
There was even a slight fire scare at the construction site, but thankfully that was dealt with quickly.
Then last week, the building finally started opening it’s doors.
That was Regional Manager Leah Logan, who has been with the project from the beginning.
For her, it was truly moving to see a finish line in sight.
Part of the delay was actually due to a happy surprise.
Linda Nydam, the construction project manager, said they began tearing down the building and realized that it’s bones were good, even if the outside didn’t look the greatest.
Aside from adding more rooms, they also made sure to build the rooms in a way that was welcoming for everyone.
While work continues on the main floor, which will be turned into commercial space, they are approaching a final moving date for tenants and even one community partner.
Community can be built anywhere, and they want the Dogwood Suites to be a community.
They want it to be a welcome space by having as much greenery as possible.
They are doing this through an outdoor public patios on the third floor and an open middle section of the building which also highlights a sunroof going into the middle floor (picture below.)
In short, they want people to feel welcome.
That was Program Manager Shelby Vosburgh.
She also said it’s the little things that matter, because they will each get a furnished apartment – they also wanted to add things to make them feel at home with meaningful donations from the community.
Vosburgh also talked about those 14 apartments that are accessible, and why that is important.
In short, going to back to Logan, she said it has been a journey but with the support and love of the community, they are thrilled to be at this point.
An open house is scheduled in July, but no firm date is set.
There is still room for a commercial store at the bottom as well, with construction continuing on the ground floor level.
Below are some images from the building.
The nearly complete exterior of the Dogwood Suites
Community laundry space.
A view from a corner unit in the Dogwood Suites.
A view from the hallway into the centre of the building. Greenery will be placed here with artifice turf. The skylight will be visible from the ground floor. There are outdoor patio areas planned but are still under contruction.
An accessible kitchen space, with appliances and plugs places at an lower level.
A tradition kitchen space. Each apartment attended had a different colour backsplash.
An example of some of the cleaning supplies and other items donated from the community. Each tenant got to pick a quilt to have at their apartment.
Below is a video showing a tour of one of the rooms, highlighting more in-depth the layout.
Posted by NorfolkToday.ca on Friday, May 27, 2022
Written by: Matt LeBlanc