The Kalein Hospice Society has decided to sell the Rosemont building it has occupied since 2012.
Executive director Rae Gulka told the Nelson Star the pandemic contributed significantly to this decision because of restrictions on public gatherings.
She said Kalein offered rentals of meeting space, maintained a commercial kitchen, and hosted education events, but “the ability to rent out a space in the pandemic virtually disappeared.”
The 10,000 square foot site at 402 West Richards St. — formerly a monastery owned by the Sisters of the Precious Blood – was purchased by Kalein for $1,050,000 with the intention of creating a free-standing facility with hospice beds.
But that vision was abandoned in 2016 when it became clear that there would be no Interior Health funding to run such an expensive facility, much less to carry out the necessary renovations.
Since then the organization has run a number of programs centred around “what it means to live life fully at all stages, including end of life,” according to a news release announcing the decision to sell.
In the news release, Kalein’s founder Sandi Leatherman listed the organization’s significant past programs.
“Kalein’s Death Cafe series, Annual Festival of Lights, Day Hospice Program, Liminal Learning Lab, CLICK Project, Memento Mori, Writing through Grief series, and now Nav-CARE are just a few of the many activities and programs that found inspiration and expression at the centre.”
The Nav-CARE program currently provides social, emotional, and practical support for adults experiencing isolation, declining health, or increased frailty. The program will continue after the sale.
The Kalein Hospice Society is a different organization from the Nelson Hospice Society, whose trained volunteers have provided palliative care in patients’ homes, in care homes, and in the hospital, since 1986.
Gulka says Kalein will look for other ways to support the community and the proceeds of the sale will go toward new programs.
The list price for the property is $1,799,000. A purchaser of the building could use it for an institutional purpose, Gulka said, or “the most likely scenario is that it becomes a subdivided property where eventually we’ll see small- to medium-sized housing.”
READ MORE:
• Kalein abandons hospice beds vision, will start palliative day program in Nelson
• Nav-CARE steps up to fill social isolation gap in Nelson’s social service sector
• The space between living and dying
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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