“This project has turned around from a concept to occupancy in a very short time.”
The speaker was Jason Reynar, CAO of the Town of Innisfil, and the project he was referring to was the new Rizzardo Health and Wellness Centre, now under construction and slated to open later this year.
Reynar was addressing a group that included members of Innisfil council, representatives of some of the health-care teams and services that will be housed in the new facility, and community donors who have helped make the centre a reality.
“The community clearly spoke, that this is a critical asset,” Reynar said.
The Rizzardo Health & Wellness Centre will house diagnostic imaging and radiology, laboratory services, family doctors, a walk-in clinic, outreach of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, a dental office, pharmacy, physiotherapy, a community kitchen, and several other tenants, within a 4,134 square metre space – providing a full spectrum of health-care services for Innisfil residents “close to home.”
The sod-turning took place just more than one year ago. On Wednesday, the group gathered at the construction trailer of Ellis Don Construction for a hard-hat tour of the new centre.
Among those donning work boots, hard hats and reflective vests were donors Sandra and Diego Rizzardo, of SanDiego Homes, whose initial donation of $2 million kickstarted the $20.3 million project, and former Innisfil mayor Stewart Fisher, who donated funds for a community room.
“There’s a momentum that comes with fundraising like this,” Reynar said, noting that these and other generous gifts from the community have allowed the addition of design features that not only make it a health and wellness centre, but “a community hub.”
Architect Bill Lett, principal of Lett Architects Inc., provided additional information. The architectural firm has extensive experience in designing community health centres.
“Community health is where we are the most passionate,” including the largest family health team centre in Oshawa, Lett said.
The Rizzardo Health & Wellness Centre is “eighty-five percent complete,” he noted, with the walk-in clinic expected to open on April 23, Life Labs taking occupancy on May 1, and RVH in July.
The building itself should be completed by the end of June.
It may take tenants a bit longer to set up and open for business.
When they take occupancy, it will be of a building that was designed with an aim of having the highest health standards, engaging the community, and to be flexible, to meet changing needs.
“One thing we are certain of is models of health care change,” Lett explained.
Health clinics were originally about meeting “acute care needs,” he said. “Things are changing. Now it’s more about wellness, and about a consumer-driven approach to health care – almost a retail approach to health care.”
For that reason, the Rizzardo centre has been “future-proofed” – with the flexibility offered by its steel-stud construction to adapt to changing community needs – and has been designed to support healthy living and wellness, through features like the central “street,” which provides a multipurpose space for interactions and connections, and a community kitchen.
“It’s about providing for wellness. It’s about community,” Lett said. “Ninety-five per cent of the facilities we’re doing now have community kitchens. It’s about engaging. There is training that goes on,” particularly for chronic conditions like diabetes.
The community kitchen almost didn’t happen. Lett noted the average cost of a health centre is $380.90 per square foot.
To keep within a budget of $335 per square foot, he said his firm undertook “value engineering,” focusing on size and cost, and eliminating some of the fixtures and fittings. It meant delaying the kitchen for a future phase.
It is the donations from the public, Lett said, that have allowed those “extras” – like the community kitchen, a community garden, and possibly a canopy over the east door – to be added back in to the project.
The centre is about more than “bringing everyone under one roof,” Lett said; it’s about creating spaces that can be programmed and used in different ways, and that engage the community.
The budget for the health centre, when initially proposed, was approximately $16.5 million for a facility that would be largely office space, housing doctors’ offices, a clinic and lab services.
The final budget of $20.3 million, approved by Innisfil council, reflected the transformation of the centre into a “community hub,” with additional tenants, community meeting spaces, and a community kitchen.
However, rising costs required the scaling back of some of the planned community facilities to keep within budget, and it would have been a much different space if not for donations from the community that included a gift from former Mayor Stewart Fisher and family of $70,000, towards a community meeting space, and a $1 million gift from Innisfil Holland Marsh farmer Boris Horodynsky for the community kitchen.
Town of Innisfil Project Manager and Liaison Susan Downs said council will be asked to release the donations to fund items like the community kitchen, which she described earlier as offering an opportunity to “address the determinants of health and serve the community,” by providing education and social connections.
“We have the opportunity for people to come in for nutrition training, bereavement cooking, cooking for one,” she noted.
Downs also explained some of the details of construction, on the site.
“This is a high-quality health building,” she said. “The air quality will be outstanding, all the materials are health grade.” Even the sinks, she said, have built-in technology, using ultraviolet light to kill germs.
Fibre optic cable provides connectivity throughout the building, and technology is planned that will make wait times easier for patients.
Just having the services together in one location, in Innisfil, eases stress on patients and their caregivers, Downs said.
“From a stress point of view, that’s really, really important.”
As a project, there have been challenges – primarily to ensure that the needs of the many tenants are met, and that the services can be provided within budget.
“It’s been a lot of learning – very exciting,” Downs said.
The tour group had the opportunity to see for themselves.
The Rizzardo centre, centrally located on the Innisfil Campus Lands at Yonge Street and Innisfil Beach Road, aims to provide better access to health-care services not only for Innisfil residents, but also residents of northern portions of Bradford West Gwillimbury.
