Sharbot Lake Seniors Home finds new owner

Jeff Green | Oct 22, 2014

Sharbot Lake will have a new housing option for seniors next year.

Hands have been wringing up and down Frontenac County ever since the Sharbot Lake Seniors' Home closed early in the summer of 2013.

Seniors' housing is a community priority in Central Frontenac and a key component of the new Frontenac County Strategic Plan, and having a 30-bed facility closed and sitting on the real estate market belied the effectiveness of those efforts.

All that changed late last week, when realtor Alison Robinson of Lake District Realty put up a "Sold" sign on the building. The really big news as far as she is concerned - and in this matter she speaks for herself and the building's soon to be former owner, Dr. Peter Bell - is that it will continue to serve the ageing population in Sharbot Lake and vicinity.

“We really wanted to sell this property to someone who was not going to re-purpose the building, and even though all the big developers we talked to said that we would have to accept that, we are happy to say it will remain a residence for the senior population,” Robinson said after the sale was announced.

Details about the nature of the new use for the home will be forthcoming later. The new owner, who is remaining anonymous for the time being, released the following statement:

“Sharbot Lake Retirement (and Retreat) Ltd., is the operating entity that will be taking over the facility. We are currently in the renovation planning stages and will begin working on the facility soon. Once we have our vision and plan worked out, we will gladly release more information when it is appropriate to do so. We look forward to a happy and long community presence and want to thank everyone we have already met and those we will meet, for the warm and wonderful welcome to the community.”

According to Robinson, the timelines that the new owner is working with are aggressive, the hope being to open in the spring or summer of 2015.

After over a year of work trying to find a buyer, and a number of near misses, there was a hint of chance in the way the sale came about.

“The daughter of the buyer's Toronto agent drove by the building. She knew her father had a client who was interested in a retirement home, so she phoned him. He gave me a call and we began the long process that led to the sale,” said Robinson.

In the run-up to the Central Frontenac election, the successful sale of the seniors' home was drafted into the pitches of some of the candidates at an all- candidates meeting in Sharbot Lake on Monday night.