Redevelopment project at Sudbury's Pioneer Manor on budget and on track for 2026 completion

City officials in Greater Sudbury say the redevelopment project at Pioneer Manor is progressing "on time" and "on budget."

Construction work is being done to add a new 100,000 square-foot, six-storey wing to the long-term care facility, with five of those floors being used by tenants. The new addition will have capacity for 160 beds and replace an existing wing from the 1970s that has 149 beds, for a total increase of 11 new beds at Pioneer Manor.

"The construction is well underway and we're progressing through the structural frame right now of the outside wing," said Aaron Archibald, director of Long Term Care Services for the City of Greater Sudbury.

"We're about 20 per cent completed on the overall schedule and remain on target to be open for mid-2026."

Archibald added the $93-million project is also staying on budget so far. It's jointly funded between the City of Greater Sudbury and the Ontario government, with the province contributing over $76 million for construction.

Work crews are adding the third floor to the building and will then move on to the fourth and fifth floors in the next month. Archibald said the plan is to have the full building erected by the fall of 2024 and enclosed so work can start on the interior through the winter.

Once things are completed in 2026, existing tenants will vacate the old wing and move over to the new building.

Archibald explained the new facility will standardize services at Pioneer Manor, while adding more privacy for residents and aiming to reduce virus transmission. 

"We're modernizing our long-term care home. We're ensuring that there's going to be system capacity available for older adults as they age. Each person will have a private bedroom, some will have a shared washroom, but a hundred of them will have a private bathroom.

"And so when we look at virus transmission, you know, learning from our time during the pandemic, ensuring that people have more privacy and more access to those types of facilities also helps reduce virus outbreak and virus outbreak management."

He added the vacated space in the old wing will be repurposed for community use and be used either by existing tenants or other community members.