“Colliers Project Leaders delivered excellent value. They are on site regularly interacting with our team and the contractor, and follow up on any assigned task. Their project managers are proactive, friendly and likeable.” – Tom McHugh, CEO, Grandview Kids
A Centre of Excellence in Pediatric Care
Grandview Kids is an independently operated not-for-profit children’s treatment centre in Ontario’s Durham Region. Dedicated to providing high-quality care to children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs, Grandview Kids offers specialized programs, outpatient clinical treatments and support to help children, youth and their families live their lives to their fullest potential.
Partnering with Infrastructure Ontario, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and the Town of Ajax, Grandview Kids recently relocated its main site to Ajax, Ontario, consolidating several of its regional satellite locations. This decision enables Grandview Kids to better support its community by expanding and enhancing existing services while also introducing new ones.
A centre of excellence in pediatric care. Grandview Kids – The Jerry Coughlan Building is a warm, welcoming, family-centred pediatric facility that supports an integrated mix of rehabilitation, medical and clinical services, as well as educational and research activities. The building spans 5.06 acres of land and features several centre-based rehabilitation services, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech-language pathology, therapeutic recreation, audiology and social work. The centre also houses several programs and family and caregiver support resources, including the Ontario Autism Program, the Family Engagement Program, the Complex Care Program and Grandview School.
The Grandview Children’s Centre Redevelopment project is an extremely impactful and meaningful one to the children, youth and families who rely on its services. Due to the size and scope of the project, project collaborators selected a public-private-partnership (P3) delivery approach – a strategy that enables teams to mitigate risk and deliver projects more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Quick Facts
The project used a public-private-partnership (P3) model to efficiently manage risk, cost and schedule from planning through to its grand opening.
The new centre offers expanded pediatric services and spearheads forward-thinking partnerships to address emerging community needs, such as increased space for the Alzheimer Society of Durham Region.
Grandview Kids consolidated multiple regional sites into a single, accessible treatment centre in Ajax to better serve children with diverse needs, while keeping several satellite locations to ensure care remains close to home for families in Durham Region.
Where strategy meets compassion
Grandview Kids selected our Colliers Project Leaders healthcare team to support the delivery of its treatment centre. Our Project Management and Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment (FF&E) teams were engaged early to provide support from project planning through to completion, delivery and the grand opening.
Working under a Design-Build-Finance model, our team was responsible for maintaining all project control functions throughout the project lifecycle, including cost and schedule control, risk management, and quality assurance. As an owner’s representative, our project managers oversaw all environmental and site planning due diligence, reviewed investigation reports and user group output specifications, supported the prequalification and selection of the design consortium team, facilitated user group design meetings and more, to deliver a highly comprehensive and fully operational care centre.
Our FF&E team also played an active role in the centre’s delivery. We developed and validated budgets, managed procurement, and coordinated the delivery and installation of furniture and equipment. By establishing an FF&E list, we ensured all clinical, educational and administrative spaces were properly outfitted for current and future needs. Our team also oversaw logistics to minimize disruptions and ensure readiness for occupancy, aligning product choices and finishes with Grandview Kids’ brand and vision to create a functional, welcoming environment for children and families.
Bringing the centre to life required more than design and delivery – it required a team that could anticipate challenges and proactively manage risks. All complex, large-scale projects inevitably come with risks. Although the P3 approach is designed to help mitigate these risks, it requires close attention to detail and careful monitoring throughout project delivery. Heading into construction in the years following the pandemic resulted in longer lead times to obtain certain pieces of equipment. Our team were able to strategize and place orders well in advance to ensure we could meet key milestones. We often planned up to six months in advance, looking ahead to anticipate risks and actively mitigate them before they could drastically impact the project.
Working with a consortium also requires expertise. Corporations of various sizes and experience levels come together to deliver a common goal, each with its own perspective and timeline. To ensure all parties remained aligned on scope and schedule, we developed a tracking mechanism, complete with contract requirements and process changes, to ensure transparency.
This much-anticipated project reached substantial completion in 2024, welcoming families to Grandview Kids’ new Ajax-based headquarters on November 22.
The new headquarters now offers a larger, fully accessible facility that allows Grandview Kids to increase its physical capacity, expand its existing services and introduce new services as populations grow. Most recently, Grandview Kids partnered with the Alzheimer Society of Durham Region (ASDR) to meet the rising demands of dementia services across Durham Region.
