Niverville Heritage Holdings Incorporated has pulled out of a plan to build a senior's housing complex and daycare centre in St. Adolphe. The commitment had been part of the deal when it took over the personal care home beds in St. Adolphe and then transferred them to the Heritage Centre in Niverville.

Gord Daman is vice-president of Niverville Heritage Holdings. He explains what has transpired.

"We at the Heritage Centre have withdrawn from the plan in St Adolphe. The reason for that is, at the direction of the Ritchot municipal council, we had provided council with a number of different options with regards to development and council felt that it wasn't in a position to take on a role of governance as well as overall direction (of the project) through the creation of a holding company to be able to provide ownership from a local community basis."

Daman notes Niverville Heritage Holdings proposed this plan to council after a search for local partners in the private sector was unsuccessful. And he adds it would not have been right for Niverville Heritage Holdings to own the project.

"NHHI obviously owns assets in Niverville but it wasn't appropriate for us to continue a direct ownership stake in St. Adolphe. We'd always looked for a community partner and that partner didn't come forward. So then we provided options to the council to essentially create a holding company similar to Niverville Heritage Holdings, which oversees the Heritage Centre In Niverville. Council just felt that it was outside their scope and their expertise to do something like that."

As a result, Daman says they have now relinquished the provincial and federal grants for the senior's housing. But, he adds, they are hoping Ritchot council can find a new partner to build the proposed 90-space daycare centre noting $700,000 in provincial funding is still in place for that. Daman adds Niverville Heritage Holdings would like to sell the former St. Adolphe PCH site to the RM Ritchot for that purpose.

"We have placed the property up for sale. We're obviously going to be marketing that property this spring. We've certainly recommended and would encourage the Ritchot council to consider purchasing the property. That is an ideal location for a daycare because it's right adjacent to the school. We have had those discussions with the Ritchot council and they are considering their options as far as location for the new daycare."