Beyond the Ranks: Veterans Housing Project Takes a Major Step Forward

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Welcome back everyone to another episode of Love the North. Thank you very much for joining us. Again as usual if you're liking the content that you see please feel free to subscribe and follow along for more content of the same. My name is Mike Richardson. I'm a local author. Lately I've been working on a project where I'm transcribing my grandfather's experiences in World War II. And just along that topic line I've taken an outside interest into other veterans outside of my own family. To that end you'll recognize Mike Jensen joining us again tonight. He is in the process of trying to get some housing together from homeless vets and a cause that I think deserves all the support that we can muster. Mike thanks again for joining us. Yeah thanks for having me again Michael. My pleasure. We're going to do kind of a recap and just see where we're at with the project as it goes. Just a quick update if you will. And tonight we're going to get down to the nuts and bolts of everything. Nothing happens in this world without money of course. And funding is a big part of this. So I guess if you want to give us an update as to where we're at with that thus far. Sure. So some of the previous podcasts we had talked about you know the sort of genesis of where this project idea come from and trying to find affordable and reasonable housing for veterans and first responders.

[01:13:53;23 - 01:14:41;12]
Quite a collaboration with those groups. You know I have more than probably 35 or 40 of the 60 spaces we're trying to rent out spoken for already. So we're getting a lot of response through our website. There's a survey there and when folks fill that out they have to put their email address in there. I always respond and say thank you for the survey. I'll add you to the distribution list for future updates. So I send out you know as we get sort of significant milestones I send out an update to everybody just to let them know where we're at. We also have Veterans Sunday coming up the 9th of August I think it is. I have to check. But all veterans are welcome. I always give an update there to the veterans that attend.

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It's on the Kingsway at the overtime sports bar and grill. So we have some chicken wings and you know free lunch type thing and we talk about veterans issues. And so hot on the plate these days is the project. And so last time what's happened since last time there's two major checkpoints that we have to get by in order to apply for funding through Build Canada Homes. The first one is we had to be able to secure funding of our own. I call it stake in the game. So the government with good reason they won't give you all the money. You have to have some private money in order to proceed. So our good friends at Tim Welch Consulting TWC they were able to secure up to 10 million dollars for us through Van City Credit Union from the west coast. At a reasonable rate of return over a 50 year span.

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So you'll recall from the previous ones we need up to 27 million dollars. So 10 million dollars not a drop in the bucket. It's going in the right direction.

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What comes along with that is we needed someone to back the loan. And so the guarantor, kind of like when you know mom and dad cosign on a mortgage when you buy your first home. A guarantor in this instance we need somebody with enough liquidity to be able to provide 5 million dollars in the event that we're unsuccessful.

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And that's just the financial requirements of loaning 10 million dollars. So the bank just doesn't hand out 10 million dollars. So you need somebody to back that loan in case things go wrong. We were able to secure that just this week. And so we're in partnership.

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We made a phone call and had a meeting with a gentleman named Ron Belanger. A very big constructor. Belanger Construction here in northern Ontario. And they have a big footprint all throughout northern Ontario. So Ron's crews do work not just in Sudbury but right across Ontario. And even as far as into the far north. North of Ontario. So they do a lot of building.

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They were the constructor that built the 55 and over Seniors Complex in Coniston. For those of you that are familiar with. And next time you drive on your way to North Bay. The biggest building in Coniston because there's not too many more than two stories in Coniston. It's a relatively small community. So you have this monster 55 unit on some vacant land. Mr. Les Lisk was the, he was the ramrod. He was the me of that project.

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And he put a lot of work into it. It was through Les that we discovered and asked a lot of questions. You know lessons learned. What should we do and shouldn't do. Les has been instrumental in trying to get us rolling. Anytime I call Les he's got good advice. He tells us don't do this. You got to do this. Talk to this guy. So he's sort of paving the road for us. Yeah, absolutely. So Les put us in contact with Ron Belanger. We had a meeting last week. And I had two questions for Ron after the niceties and you know sort of got to know him a little bit. I should say I did, we did do a lot of work when I was in water and wastewater with Belanger. It was, they do a lot of projects for water and wastewater. So I'm familiar a little bit with his staff and how he works and that sort of thing.

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So once we, introduction was over made, I said to Ron I've got two questions. We talked about the project. We want to build a 60 unit complex. We're housing veterans and first responders. We're applying through build Canada homes for, you know, we told him about the $10 million that we had received.

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And in order to get that $10 million, we need a constructor. And are you interested in the project? And without, you know, a second thought, Ron said yes, I'm interested in that project.

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So we talked about Ron's, what he would like to construct. So that's not really my forte. I don't understand these sorts of things. But Ron is the man. And so they want to build something similar to what they had in Coniston. I mentioned there's a 55 unit complex there. We're going to build 60 units. So it's pretty close. Five or six stories. Ron builds modular with wood. And so the parameters for our building is such within the city that it's permissible to use wood studs. And they build in their own shop, regardless of weather. They put these panels together and then drop them on site and put them all together from a modular construction.

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So if we were pouring concrete, it's explained to me, there's certain times of the year you can't pour. Then there's heating and hoarding and all these sorts of things. So sometimes there's a slowdown in construction because of the just because of the weather that we have here in Northern Ontario. We're not as subject to that those climate issues with modular building because you can build in a in a climate workshop. Right. And then bring everything to site.

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So that's what Ron is proposing. It also ticks off a lot of boxes for the government funding with regards to our value. So the insulation factor, our ability to build as energy efficient building as possible. And so it was all good stuff. We learned a lot. Myself and Vice President Dan Draper went for the meeting. Les was there along with Ricky Alawaga, our architect and Ron Belanger, of course. And we had a very good discussion for about 45 minutes or an hour.

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After I knew Ron wanted the project, I had a second question for him. What we needed for that $10 million loan was someone to be that guarantor for up to $5 million. Someone with enough liquidity to be able to do that.

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And I asked Ron if he'd be willing to sponsor us in that regard. And he said yes.

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So we were pretty happy. Yeah. Right. So I mentioned there was two major checkpoints we had to get by. The first one was that $10 million. It comes along with a constructor and a backer. And we got that check mark. So that was awesome. Second one we got to get before we can apply for government funding is a land lock. Legally, we have to lock that land up in order to be shovel-ready. Most of the Bill Canada homes, they want shovel-ready projects. So that means you don't have a lot of time or money in order to put towards investing in, clearing a lot, doing all the blasting here in Sudbury, everything's rock. So you've got a lot of work to do on some lots. And there are some out there that Rick and Alawaga and I have talked about. There's some at, you know, two and three times the size, $800,000. There's 1.5. So a lot less than the property value of what we're looking at. But what they don't have is, and there's no, it's my understanding, there's no land in Sudbury that's shovel-ready, that we would be able to purchase and build as quickly as we'd like to. Is any of those cheaper lots you're looking at not just added expenses for permits and all that kind of stuff, but time? Time. So the blasting and the land clearing and the, there's a lot that comes along with developing a piece of land. It doesn't matter where you are. I'm sure Sudbury is probably has some unique challenges with regards to that sort of build.

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We are seeing a lot of big buildings going up though. I see the Mayor just announced another huge two or three structures.

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You know, there's the big one that's on the hill by downtown, right? Mammoth building there.

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So there's a lot of building happening. Now, how long it took those folks to get cleared in order to build? I'm not sure whether it's site ready. I don't know that either. I just know that, you know, there's a lot of people building multi-stage, multi-level and multi-apartment type buildings in Sudbury.

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So we haven't given up on the land that we earmarked and the owner of the land is, he's not budging too much on his price point. He'd like to stay where he is.

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When we did the financials on the spreadsheet with TWC, they're indicating that there's not a lot of margin left on our project, which means we have to be in the black, first of all. And we'd like to be in the black, you know, we don't have to be in the black hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would be nice. But as a not-for-profit, you don't want to be too much in the black and you can't be in the red. So if we're in the red because of the price of the property, we got to find the money elsewhere,

[01:23:14;09 - 01:25:36;20]
which is, which means, you know, on a $25 to $27 million project, can we find, and what I'm estimating is probably up to $1.5 million. The property value is at three, and we'd like to have that down around two or two and a half. So we're shooting for one and a half to $2 million to try and alleviate some of those costs. And that funding, that million to million in an app, that's going to come from... Well, we, on the project, I mean, I haven't been necessarily a project manager on a lot of big projects, but I'm sure there's some wiggle room on, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars on a project. Here and there. On a $27 million project, if we mine our P's and Q's and watch in compliant and that sort of thing, we're hopeful we can make it up, you know, over the long term. Now, would donations and such come in? Absolutely. So we're moving, I'm working with Weaver Simmons in town. We're moving from a not-for-profit to a charitable status, which for larger corporations that would like to get involved in donating for our cause, they need that receipt. And so we're doing that now. We're moving, not necessarily a short process to move into from an NFP to a charity, but we do have all the checks in the boxes in order to be a charitable foundation. And so once that happens, we'll really be knocking on the door of the big corporate sponsors in town to say, this is what we're doing. We'd really appreciate any donation that you can make in order to help us offset and just bring our margin back, you know, where we would expect it to be. Has that conversation taken place with the City Council? Not yet. So we haven't gotten in front of Council. Once we have the land locked, you know, there's a series of sort of steps on the pyramid before you get to the pinnacle where you apply. So the first is the land lock and getting that private financing and a backer. Now we're going to move up, but it's a little smaller on the pyramid. So, you know, it's not as much we move in. Well, and so little things that aren't quite so hard to overcome as well. So we do have to get an update for our permit processes and that sort of thing, which will require us to stand in front of planning committees and possibly Council. At that point, City Council is involved. You know, they know through the Mayor. I'm quite sure most Councillors are aware that we're trying to do this.

[01:25:38;24 - 01:27:58;28]
But we'll be in front formally in front of site plan applications and, you know, the various boards that we have to approach from that perspective. That will come after these two steps that we're trying to get through right now. The acquisition of the land is the next one we're tackling. So definitely heading in the right direction by the sounds of it. So far. It's very exciting. We haven't had a flat tire yet and the engine's still rolling. So we haven't broke down and give up on, you know, we're still moving along. We're being guided by some professionals. They're telling us what we need to do. And we're just taking it sort of one day, one week, one month at a time. And the timeline is what the timeline is. And we're hopeful, you know, we're moving along at a pretty good pace, you know. You definitely seem to be organized and have all your ducks in the room. Well, we try. I really look forward to these updates. I love hearing about all the progress you're making. Yeah. I think that's a it's a fantastic, another step forward. Yeah. I can't wait to hear the next update. We just, you know, there's some small dollar values too. We talked about large corporate donors. I'm on my way this week to pay a $3,500 bill to lawyers because they helped us with our bylaws and our, in order to become a charity, there's some legal things we need to do. And anyways, there's the small dollar values as well. And I would appeal to the crowd that if you go to our website, donate now, you know, every dollar helps, you know, in order for us to get to, you know, the next legal fees will be the landlock will involve a commercial lawyer. We haven't got funding yet of any sort. So we're just doing a lot of sort of smaller private donations, a few events here and there. And, you know, those sort of dollars add up in order for us to pay those, you know, there's the big dollars and there's the little dollars. But the little dollars is what matters the most right now in order for us to be successful to get towards the big dollars. Yeah. So we'll put that information up on the website as well. I appreciate it. And we'll put that information up on the website where you can go and find out about the donating. And we'll try to keep you abridged to everything that happens. Again, Mike, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work. You're doing fabulous work. And thanks for coming. We'll look forward to seeing you again. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.