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All of the amenities at Church
Street were designed with the
intention of building a lasting
community. The ‘lasting’ part is
particularly important to Penn
Terra Group.
In researching previous afford-
able housing developments,
they learned that there was an
unfortunate history of leases
running out, and affordable
housing units being converted
into something else. To make
sure that wouldn’t happen on
Church Street, Penn Terra set
up a 20-year lease with Bethle-
hem that can be automatically
renewed for another 20 years
at Bethlehem’s discretion.
“We wanted to set up a lease for
100 years, but there are laws in
Canada that say you can’t do
that,” John says. “But the goal is
to provide affordable housing
services in that building for a
long, long, long time.”
To help achieve that goal, Penn
Terra Group had to make sure
to create a building that would
last, that wouldn’t deteriorate in
15 years and have to be rebuilt.
BUSINESS WORLD MAGAZINE
Built to last