Image Credit: Children's Circle Daycare Society (Rendering from BlueGreen Architecture Inc.)

By Chad Klassen

KAMLOOPS CHILD CARE

Kamloops daycare on the verge of developing new space

Jun 22, 2019 | 8:30 AM

KAMLOOPS — A daycare in Kamloops is getting a major boost in its effort to find a new location, and add more children to its centre.

The Children’s Circle Daycare Society is currently housed across from Royal Inland Hospital, and the society is on the verge of getting a new building downtown.

Children’s Circle Daycare Society has 78 kids in its care. But according to Amy Pannett who is on the society’s board of directors, its two locations are running out of room as demand for more childcare grows.

“There’s over 300 people on our wait list for 78 spots,” She says, “Most of those are quite young.”

The society, in partnership with developer Arpa, is looking at a new site on 9th Avenue. The space is right above the Kamloops School of the Arts, and it would see 32 new spaces added.

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Image Credit: CFJC Today (Pictured- the proposed future site)

“This is our dream location. And so we absolutely jumped at the chance, ” Pannett explains, “It’s close to our current location, so it’s not that much of a disruption to our current families. We are a downtown daycare, and we always wanted to remain a downtown daycare.”

Last month, Arpa Investments partner Joshua Knaak says Arpa entered into a land swap with the city to acquire this property.

“There had been some use for this land. I think it was approved for 35 units of affordable housing,” Knaak says, “And the city looked at that and said, ‘Perhaps there is a better solution here. Let’s use this land primarily for daycare space.'”

The land swap is contingent on council re-zoning the property. Arpa Investments hopes to have shovels in the ground by the fall.

Children’s Circle is eager to see the new centre built. Pannett says its lease near the hospital runs out at the end of the year.

“I mean the bottom line is we need it to happen as quickly as we can. We’re operating on borrowed time with our current lease at the hospital,” Pannett explains, “The hospital has extended the lease by a few months. We may be looking at a temporary location.”

The centre will cost nearly $3 million, but the daycare will be applying for government grants. If all goes well, the building would be complete in the fall of 2020.