It may be March, but that hasn’t halted work on The Mount Continuing Care Community’s building expansion project.
Construction on the new 70,000-square-foot expansion began in late November. Once it opens, it will be the new home for the Mount Academy private school currently located in the caring facility.
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The Mount’s owner Paul Jenkins said the academy will be able to accommodate 150 students and six to eight classrooms once it moves into the new space. He said the school area is expected to be ready by September while another part of the project – 18 apartment units – is expected to be ready by January.
The building is five storeys with a basement. Charlottetown city council approved the project in the fall.
Besides the space for the Mount Academy, the plan also involves 16 nursing care units and parking spaces. A swimming pool was originally planned, but Jenkins said that area will be turned into a staff room and tenant storage instead. The existing Mount building has a swimming pool.
The steel framework is being done by Borden-Carleton’s MacDougall Steel Erectors Inc. The exterior is going to be brick, but Jenkins noted the brick will be chocolate brown in colour –
a different colour than the existing Mount.
Jenkins wouldn’t say how much the project cost, other than to say “a building with a steel frame and a brick exterior isn’t cheap.”
