New apartments opening to help support staff at Gillis Lodge in rural P.E.I.

Two new apartment buildings are helping health-care workers at Dr. John Gillis Memorial Lodge in Belfast, P.E.I., find local accommodation right across the street.

It all started when Stratford, P.E.I., residentAjayMathew Punnapadam, president of Confederation Construction and Interiors Inc., was looking for a new opportunity to develop an apartment building.

Punnapadamand his family immigrated to the Island from India inJune 2019 and he had been planning on a six-unit apartment development in Stratford when the project fell through.

He heard of a housing shortage in the Belfast area from talking with a friend, especially for some of the people who work at the Gillis Lodge there.

The long-term care homecan accommodate up to 128 residents with a specially designed dementia care unit.

"Health-care workers need to travel all the way from either Charlottetown or Stratford into Belfast because they wouldn't be able to get accommodation nearby," Punnapadamsaid.

"So we said their problem is a development opportunity."

He said he spoke with the owners of the lodge who were receptive of the idea.

There are now two six-unit buildings constructed as part of Gillis Place Apartments, one of them already occupied and the other nearly complete.

Punnapadamsaid he is hoping more projects will follow on the Island.

"The idea would be to make self-sustained mini-townships,"Punnapadamsaid.

With schools, grocery, recreation centre and a post office, he said, Belfast has all the facilities for a small town.

"With the increasing land prices and the difficulty accessing land in Charlottetown and Stratford, this might be the best way to go forward,"Punnapadamsaid.

He says there are approvals in place to build two more in the area.

The construction project was part of his immigration journey, butPunnapadam, with his wife and three kids, expects they'llbe Islanders for years to come.

"They love every bit of it," he said. "They're saying they don't even want to go on a holiday anywhere else because every part of the Island is like a holiday for them."

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