Published: June 29, 2012 8:00 AM
Not having a business in West Vancouver wasn’t enough to stop Pacific Arbour Retirement Communities from taking home the Business of the Year Award from the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. While the retirement home operator won’t have a physical presence in the district until its 130-suite Westerleigh Retirement Residence opens at 22nd Street and Marine Drive next year, the company’s presence has been felt in other ways. Not the least of which is through the organization’s charitable work and through sponsorship of cultural events like the Harmony Arts Festival and the Coho Festival. Pacific Arbour donates an estimated $300,000 annually to about 70 organizations and events, primarily in West Vancouver and the North Shore.
“We’ve got deep roots in the community because we’ve been sponsoring a number of arts and culture events on the North Shore for many years,” said Pacific Arbour marketing manager Katy Couvell. “And then there’s also the way we approached obtaining our development permit and talking to our clients for the Westerleigh residence. We actually held a series of focus groups to talk to our potential clients about what kind of services they would be looking for and how we could adapt our typical program for the West Vancouver market.” When it opens next summer, the Westerleigh will mark 13 years of growth for Pacific Arbour, totalling 529 seniors suites on the North Shore. Additionally, the company will donate 3,000 square feet of its Marine Drive frontage at the Westerleigh to Capilano University’s Eldercollege program, establishing the school’s first-ever West Vancouver campus. The volunteer-run Eldercollege program is an educational program geared towards retirees and has become an important community asset for learning and socializing. “While there still might be some people in West Vancouver who don’t know who we are,” Couvell said, “we do have deep threads in the community.”
North Shore Outlook Article
