Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Many of you have probably seen the real estate adds in the Tideline. Two significant parcels of land are being sold as part of a much lager vision. Cortes Community Housing intends to have the Rainbow Ridge project ‘shovel ready’ for funding by 2023.

They have previously applied for funding from BC Housing three times.

“Twice for Rainbow Ridge and once for the Senior Society expansion. What we're doing now is getting ready for our third attempt to win funding from BC Housing for Rainbow Ridge,” explained Sandra Wood, Executive Director of the Cortes Community Housing Society. “We're also working with Vancity credit union. They are helping right now with preconstruction expense.

“So we have an opportunity to partner with Vancity credit union. We have an opportunity to partner with BC housing. Once one of them says, ‘Yes, your business case for Rainbow Ridge makes sense based on what it's going to cost to build and the income that's going to come in once it's fully occupied,’ then we can also get CMHC, which is the federal government Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation to be a co-investment partner. They will only join the project once we've been select buy a bank or by BC housing.”

She explained that all of the communities on Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands are competing for the same pool of funding from BC Housing.

“The next intake from BC housing has not been announced, as far as when they will accept grant applications, but we believe it will be sometime in 2023. We hope it will be the spring of 2023,” said Wood.

“What we're trying to do right now is make Rainbow Ridge a shovel ready project, so that it's a really easy decision for BC Housing to choose Cortes island.”

Rainbow Ridge is currently in the Design Development phase and hired Iredale Architects to find less expensive way to build 24 townhomes.

They are awaiting approval from the Ministry of Transportation for the 6 acre subdivision’s road design.

The project contractor is preparing an up to date budget, which will be costed in the autumn.

The new plans will be shared with the community at a Town Hall meeting in October.

“In addition to coming to BC Housing with those plans, we also need to come to the table with some cash. I know it's gonna be a big, expensive project and the more money that we can bring to the table, the more attractive it will be to BC Housing or any other funder,” said Wood.

This is where the real estate sales come in.