Last Updated on October 24, 2023 by CREW Editorial
Bruce Stewart has been building seniors housing developments for over 25 years. He has partnered with many of Canada’s leading seniors housing providers including Amica, Chartwell, Sienna Living and Seasons Retirement.
You may be inclined to think that his upcoming development – The Founders Residences in Westboro, Ottawa would just be another development for Stewart. Well, you’d be wrong. Two years ago, Stewart was forced to move his own elderly father into a senior’s residence. Although heart wrenching, it was a move that reaffirmed his passion for creating the best possible housing developments for seniors across Canada.
“I realized that although the designs of these buildings and their features had evolved over the past 25 years, they had not reached the point where I would feel comfortable relocating my own father,” Stewart says. “Today’s boomers are looking at housing options for their parents and saying, ‘this is not good enough’”.
Boomers have also managed to accrue a significant amount of wealth and that creates the ability to help their parents live more comfortably in their senior years. As Stewart puts it: who doesn’t want to help their elderly parents do that?
“The idea with the Founders Residences is to create an opportunity for seniors to live a better quality of life in an environment that suits their specific needs, but at the same time to make the project attractive to purchasers.”
Stewart describes the Founders Residences as a win-win for everyone involved. As the developer, he gets to build a forward thinking innovative development, the buyers who are purchasing condominium units have the option to participate in a fully managed program that allows their ownership to become purely passive in nature. Residents get to live comfortably in a fully serviced, technology enabled condominium.
Stewart and his partners have put together an experienced team of leading experts to make the Founders Residences dream become a reality. With leading architects, lawyers, accountants and seniors housing management experts on board, Stewart has created a team that has cumulatively developed almost a billion dollars’ worth of seniors housing assets.
“Everyone has come together with the mission to deliver a more residential environment for today’s seniors which allows them to age in place while maintaining their independence through our unique designs and technology,” Stewart says.
