The Brechin project started in 2012 in partnership with a local developer and investor. Brechin is located on Highway 12, near the eastern shores of Lake Simcoe with a year-round population of just over 7000 thousand people. It is the main population center and business hub for Ramara Township of Simcoe County.

It is a quaint little town with a post office, LCBO, grocery store, building supply store, two elementary stores, churches, variety stores, restaurants, coffee shops, active Lions Club, Rotary, and Legion.

I met the developer in late 2011, just after the OMB. They were interested in coming to the Bracebridge shared home and speaking to the co-owners and finding out more about how this all works. The project developer was a successful engineer and his investor was a landowner from the Orillia area. They all came for a visit to the shared home in Bracebridge and they sat and chatted with my dad and the ladies, they asked questions, got ideas, and were able to determine on their own whether this living arrangement was successful. A few days later my husband and I found ourselves in their offices in Orillia discussing the possibility of building a purpose-built shared home in Brechin.

We were excited and worked with his staff to come up with a design that made sense and the new house was designed to meet the needs of the co-owners as they aged. The house was purposely-built to accommodate individual private space and to enhance the common space for the owners. The challenge, of course, was the building was quite large and it had to fit into the community and blend in with the neighbourhood homes.

The construction of the project was well managed and the crews worked very hard to complete the project as quickly as possible. We started to market and sell the suites by listing them on MLS, developing our promotional package, and promoting them online on our website and social media. We were attracting a very interested group of people. We had lots of media attention and community interest.

This project was a complete success and now supports 6 individuals with the opportunity to live in shared housing. The second project is underway in the community.

Interested in becoming an Associate Partner with Solterra Co-housing Ltd? We are offering builders, developers, entrepreneurs the opportunity to become partners with us to develop more housing stock in your community. You work under your own brand, we will provide you will design ideas, legal paperwork, permit support, sales documents, sales analysis plus all the manuals, guides, and consulting needed to develop your own project. To find out more connect with Shelley

This photo was taken in our Barrie project with local MPPs, Andrea Khanjin, Hon, Doug Downey, Lindsay Park, Durham Region, Chapter Chair of CARP #36, and Shelley Raymond