After having faced challenges by a group of residents over their redevelopment plan earlier this year, the administration of the Massawippi Retirement Communities informed The Record on Thursday that North Hatley’s Connaught Home has been sold. Speaking alongside Eric D’Avignon, one of a group of four associates that has bought the home, Grace Village Executive Director Doug Bowker said that the sale comes as good news at the end of a long and sometimes difficult road.
“For us, the group represented by Eric is the ideal partner,” Bowker said, explaining that of the three groups that expressed interest in buying the property, the new ownership group was the only one looking to do essentially the same independent-living project that Grace Village had originally planned. “We just didn’t have the funding,” he said by way of explanation for why the property is being sold rather than maintained by the Massawippi Retirement Communities.
The new ownership group consists of D’Avignon as well as Robin Fortier, and François Poirier, who already own a large number of residential and commercial buildings in Sherbrooke, as well as Dr. Mario Soulard, who is one of the doctors involved with Grace Village. “We know buildings and we know people,” D’Avignon said, highlighting the fact that the new owners can count several healthcare-related buildings among their properties. See full story in the Friday, Dec. 13 edition of The Record.
