In the heart of Mill Woods, the Grey Nuns Community Hospital is straining under the weight of a growing population. The facility sees 75,000 emergency visits per year in a space designed for 25,000. This is not a problem that can be fixed with more beds; it needs a new vision for how health care integrates into daily life.
The solution is Lakewood, a new health campus that uses the Covenant Wellness Community model. It’s a movement that transforms how Albertans access care by placing integrated health and social support at the heart of community life. This destination in southeast Edmonton is Alberta’s first community-based, one-stop wellness village.
It’s a bold vision that shifts the focus from emergency care to wellness. This integrated services model invests in evidence-based services for seniors’ care, primary care and mental health care. It decreases unnecessary acute care use and allows smoother care transitions, while increasing community access.
“We like to say that Covenant Wellness communities don’t replace hospitals, the model just makes them work,” says Covenant Health CEO Patrick Dumelie. Lakewood is no different, helping the hospital to go above and beyond when it comes to patient care in a way that is new for the organization.
Covenant Health was looking for a solution bigger than a typical hospital project. To make this vision a reality, it partnered with the Rohit Group, a developer specializing in creating complete communities.
The first challenge was the site: 12 acres of land that included MacEwan University’s south campus, which closed in 2014. Covenant initially planned to repurpose the site’s building to provide some health services. But constraints such as suboptimal floor heights, elevator locations and the need for surface parking lots proved to be fundamental barriers. Russell Dauk, executive vice-president of income-producing properties for Rohit Group, says the partners realized they had to start from a “blank slate site approach.”
The decision to start from scratch freed them to create a horizontal mixed-use campus. It’s a village of distinct buildings, rather than a monolithic structure, encompassing a health centre, seniors’ care, residential housing and retail. In fact, MacEwan’s master plan, written in 1971, had envisioned a public service health care campus with seniors’ residences for this site once the educational campus reached its functional end.
The first phase of the Lakewood Covenant Wellness Community is a community health centre. The centre’s 190,000 square feet is already open and includes outpatient clinics, diagnostic imaging and wellness services. This relocation of services — such as cardiac rehabilitation, diabetes care and preadmission services — frees up space at the Grey Nuns for acute care patients. The partnership is structured for long-term sustainability through a financial model that allows Covenant the opportunity to generate sustainable revenue from the balance of the uses on site. This financial model allows the vision to scale across Alberta, addressing the need for better health care through innovative development.
The campus is designed not to feel institutional, instead prioritizing natural light, comfort and healing. Architectural elements, such as the use of warm wood tones that visually connect the exterior and the interior, were chosen for their calming effect. The building features multiple points of entry and a welcoming atmosphere, including a large front entrance area with amphitheatre-style seating that doubles as a community gathering place.
A conference centre is available for public use, there is a large-format daycare, gym facilities and a blend of medical retail. The partners now have a 95 per cent lease commitment for medical tenants, including all-star companies such as Alberta Precision Laboratories, Amplify Hearing Clinic, Cornerstone Counselling and Next Step Physiotherapy. Visitors and staff can also fill up at restaurants and coffee shops like Chopped Leaf and Square One Coffee.
“We think this is the beta site of the future of health care,” Dumelie says. “This integrated model, with an efficient service delivery and integrated one-stop shop for health and wellness, should be replicated across the province.” The Covenant Wellness Community model positions health as equity. In recognition, the design earned the development the 2026 BILD Edmonton Metro Award for Best Mixed-Use Development.
“This is a great source of pride for us and a great source of innovation,” says Dumelie. “We’ve learned a lot about how to work effectively within the community and be part of the community. It’s a passion project for us.”
Imagine it: a nurse is at the end of her shift helping seniors at the community health centre. She walks to her nearby home in the elevated and stylish residential rental building in the Lakewood District, which is part of the brand-new urban village. She lives in Gilbertson Block, a new 199-unit residential apartment next to the centre, the heartbeat of the community. The residence offers convenient housing for nurses, doctors and other professionals. Its amenity-rich modern residences are the antidote to the aging housing that characterizes nearby neighbourhoods. It’s not too far in the future.
Gilbertson Block, which will be complete in early 2027, is steps away from major amenities including the Lakewood Transit Station, the Mill Woods Recreation Centre and the Covenant Wellness Community. Area professionals and seniors also benefit from the integrated community. For decades, Mill Woods — a neighbourhood rich with schools, parks and transit — has offered a great community for its residents. Gilbertson Block is the new addition, offering modern, amenity-rich, climate-controlled apartments with nine-foot ceilings, big windows and secure underground parking. It perfects the combination of modern amenities in an established setting.
“This is a unique opportunity in an established neighbourhood,” says Russell Dauk, with Rohit. He says Mill Woods already has all the amenities, such as transit and schools, and “now we add a new building with all its qualitative aspects.” The design process focused on the tenant’s experience: how does the space feel and function? The emphasis on natural light and wood tones — architectural features shared with the health centre — was intentional, creating comfortable, stress-reducing environments.
This revitalization project, driven by more than $400 million in combined investment, is a catalyst for all of Mill Woods, creating more than 1,300 permanent jobs. It lifts the whole community, bringing new services and a higher-calibre residential option to an older neighbourhood, reminding people of the qualities their community already has.“This place breaks the mold. Public infrastructure has a place in the community and can be this catalyst for these other uses, if we just let it,” Dauk says. “We’re proud of this partnership between Covenant and Rohit. Together, we’re delivering more than just a medical clinic, we are also creating a complete wellness community model that adds to the community, creates a great lifestyle, and supports better health outcomes. And it’s helping to sustain the core health-care provider with a more sustainable financial model. We’re delivering a complete community.” Dumelie agrees with Dauk. “It has been a huge success story from financial modelling, from community integration, from the ability for people to improve their access to everyday health care, to taking the pressure off the acute care hospital,” he says. “All those things we hoped for and dreamt of are happening.”
• 1,300+ Number of permanent jobs supported across health care, housing and retail at Lakewood
• 11.2 acres The size of this multiphase master-planned urban village
• 190,000 sq. ft. The size, of the community health centre
• 50% Covenant stake in the residential commercial components
