The sod was turned Monday morning on a life lease project in Niverville.

Steve Neufeld (right inset) with the Niverville Heritage Centre says this $12.9 million project called Heritage Life Retirement Living will be a four storey, 46 suite complex, complete with two hotel style guest suites and medical clinic. Neufeld notes this is the culmination of their aging in place concept which began in 2007. He adds the structure will take up about 80,000 square feet. Suite sizes will vary from 740 square feet to just over 2,000 square feet.

"Aging in place for us is an independent living component, an assisted living component, supportive housing, personal care home and special care unit," he says.

Neufeld says even before construction officially started, there was a lot of interest.

"We're approaching fifty per cent mark as far as reserved suites," notes Neufeld. "So we're very excited about that."

Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck (left inset) says this is a key project for the town for so many reasons. First of all, he says with these expansions to

health services in Niverville, it means residents will no longer have to move out of the community in their retirement years.

"There's been a lot of families that might even be second or third generation as well as new residents to the community, they live here, they invest their time here, they may have owned businesses here, their kids have gone to school here," he says. "Then they get to a certain age and the thank you that they get after investing their time and all these years in a community is, 'oh by the way, we don't have something for you and you're going to need to leave.'"

Dyck says that tears families apart.

"To know that you can stay in the community with your friends, where you've grown up and where you've invested your time," he says. "That's just a simple way of saying thank you to these people for what they've done to this community that you can stay where you belong."

Dyck says it was also announced Monday that health services in Niverville will be expanding from a staffing perspective. In fact, he says Dr. Chris Burnett has indicated that as part of their five year master plan, the goal is to have 24/7 care in the community.