New Boyle Street facility gets green light from city – again
Posted March 22, 2023 12:12 pm.
Boyle Street Community Services is one step closer to developing its new downtown building.
The organization is celebrating after receiving a permit from the City of Edmonton to begin development, four months after such a permit was revoked due to zoning issues.
Okimaw peyesew kamik, or King Thunderbird Centre, will be a new space for BSCS to deliver services to Edmonton’s homeless community.
“This building will have a lot of different avenues and sections that will serve the community in a much more organized and better way,” a Boyle Street worker told CityNews.
Boyle Street Community Services
Boyle Street purchased the property in McCauley in 2021 with $10 million from the Edmonton Oilers. The current Boyle Street building just blocks away is across the street from Rogers Place.
In addition to receiving the permit to continue with development, Boyle Street also announced it’s 80 per cent of the way to its funding goal to transform the space. The group says it needs around $5 million in donations.
The project, which is across the street from Victoria School of the Performing Arts, has received opposition from some in the community.
Boyle Street Community Services executive director Jordan Reiniger on March 22, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Darcy Ropchan)
But Boyle Street’s executive director says the space is a way to serve the community.
“This is part of the solutions to those challenges, giving them a place to go, giving them the services they need to move forward, addressing the root causes rather than pushing the challenges around,” said Jordan Reiniger.
The building is set to have a phased opening in summer and fall of 2024.
