2025 YEAR IN REVIEW: Nelson’s new health campus opens at former Mount St. Francis location
Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Nelson’s new Community Health Campus was officially opened on Sept. 4 after years of discussion and planning.
The $40-million complex, built on the grounds of the former Mount St. Francis Hospital in the Fairview neighbourhood, includes a 75-bed long-term care facility and a community centre that will house a variety of different health-care services.
The former hospital operated from the 1940s to 2005, then sat empty until it was demolished in 2021.
The new centre took many years of lobbying, several partnerships and nearly four years of construction to complete. The city first requested the provincial government make upgrades to Mount St. Francis, or replace it entirely, in 1999.
But it wasn’t until 2020 that Interior Health announced it would tear down the empty hospital and replace it with a new health campus.
“This is a place for our entire community and there’s going to be people who we all love who are going to be lucky enough to get to old age and to be in this facility…,” said Kootenay Central MLA Brittny Anderson when the campus opened. “It is so meaningful to be able to open this.”
The campus is co-owned by Columbia Basin Trust and Golden Life Management, a private company that runs retirement developments and care facilities. Interior Health is leasing and operating the buildings at an estimated annual cost of $7.5 million.
The campus’ long-term care facility, known as Fairview Gardens, will primarily serve seniors who are no longer able to manage in their own homes, have complex medical needs, and are typically entering their final 12-18 months of life. The building also has a unit set aside for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have neuromuscular diseases, mental-health illnesses or substance-use disorders.
The campus’ other building, the Nelson Community Health Services Centre, offers space for numerous services that include early childhood development, home health, nurse practitioners, public health, and substance-use counselling and treatment.
Dr. Trevor Janz, who previously worked at Mount St. Francis, returned to the campus as its medical director for long-term care. He said the new facility will carry on the legacy of health care at the location.
“I’m delighted to see a campus of care on this land. What a wonderful idea to gather health services in one place so that people can come. A campus of care is a really good idea to cluster services to wrap around people.”