Ribbon Cutting for our new 8 Suite Addition

Norwood – Mapleview Retirement Centre’s new expansion has opened. The nearly 2,500 square foot addition was officially unveiled Oct. 27 during an early blast of winter-like weather.

The Norwood retirement home’s new space includes eight suites, a sun room, accessible washroom, reception area, office and storage.

The groundbreaking was held in April with an October completion target and that’s what they were able to do, owner Sonya Sohi said.

“Every effort was made to have it done by October,” Sohi said after a brief ceremony that included words from township councillor Bernadette Vanderhorst, and Lenore Webster treasurer of the Mapleview Resident’s Council.

“This was by far the best and easiest transition we’ve had in all the construction we’ve ever had to do with all our properties,” she said.

Mapleview is owned by Mundi Holdings Limited of Mississauga, which operates four retirement homes in southern Ontario along with commercial investments across Canada.

They’ve operated Mapleview for 12 years.

Working with the existing Mapleview footprint, Sohi said the design plans went through many revisions “to make it as perfect as possible.”

“We did the best we could with what we had and we’re so glad we could do it here on one existing property,” she said. “If we’d had more space or land we’d certainly have loved to build 25 rooms.”

The goal, she added, was to try to have much space for residents as well as “spacious rooms.”

“That’s their little home and we wanted to make it as comfortable and as open as possible,” said Sohi. “There was a lot of effort behind the scenes to make this happen. It was truly a group effort.”

The rooms are 289 sq. ft.

The municipality, she said, was very “co-operative and supportive in making it happen for us (and) guiding it along.”

Contractor Bob Brins kept things on track, she added.

Activity director Tiffany Martel says the new sun room has already been well used for church, movie nights and a cancer research fundraiser, and will be home to Mapleview’s exercise program which is open to anyone in the community.

“We’re slowly, gradually moving different things into the room. We’re just kind of getting a feel for what (we) can fit in here and do in here.”

Vanderhorst said the expansion was “truly an investment in our township.”

She called Mapleview a “symbol of country charm.”

“Council appreciates that Mapleview staff communicates with us frequently.”