Renovation work is underway at 4618 50 Ave in downtown Red Deer to transition the former Lotus Nightclub into the brand new Red Deer Dream Centre, a 40-bed drug and alcohol treatment and recovery centre. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

red deer dream centre

Work underway on downtown addiction treatment facility

May 10, 2021 | 12:41 PM

Work is now underway on turning a former nightclub in downtown Red Deer into a 40-bed drug and alcohol treatment and recovery centre.

What was once the Lotus Nightclub at 4618 50 Ave. is being overhauled into the Red Deer Dream Centre.

Wes Giesbrecht, Board President of the Red Deer Dream Centre (RDDC), says the project has been in the works for over three years, and that he’s excited to finally see things coming together.

“Construction is well underway, the steel is ordered, the concrete and the piles have been poured,” he explained. “I think we’re a couple weeks away from getting steel and once steel shows up, then we can start adding that second floor around the whole perimeter of the building. It’s been really fun to watch.”

The City of Red Deer issued a $1.4 million building permit last month for the project Giesbrecht expects to take six months to complete.

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“By the end of the year, or basically January 1, we would like to have our first clients.”

He notes over $1.1 million in cash and gifts-in-kind have been raised for the project.

“Operationally, we’re working really hard at getting that budget to a place where it’s sustainable as well, and we’re close. It’s not been without a challenge, for sure. It’s not an easy time to be asking for money, but at the same time, it’s been amazing,” he shared.

“It’s the businesses, it’s the individuals, and it’s been really profound to watch. We’re still short $275,000 approximately for the capital budget part, but at the end of the day, I have no problem seeing it come in in the next four or five months.”

Giesbrecht notes the need for 1,800 ‘freedom fighters’ to donate $40 per month to help establish the Dream Centre’s operating budget.

(Red Deer Dream Centre)

He says the facility will primarily be a live-in residential, male-only facility when it first opens. There will be a commercial kitchen and gathering area/basketball court downstairs, workout facility, and a room to use for services such as mobile dentistry and psychiatry.

Giesbrecht says the facility will offer a long-term addictions recovery program with residents staying a minimum of around 90 days and up to six to eight months.

He also notes that a recovery centre for women set to open in Sylvan Lake in June or July.

Once the Red Deer Dream Centre is ready to open, Giesbrecht anticipates admitting clients from Safe Harbour Society’s Medically-Supported Detox program.

“I would implore you that we do not have a significant homeless issue, we have a drug problem, and the drug problem keeps people homeless,” suggests Giesbrecht. “Housing is a good thing and yes you need a house, but if you are addicted to a substance and it keeps you in a space where you can’t stay housed, there’s no way that giving you a house is going to solve the problem of homelessness. It goes so much deeper than that.

“It’s about getting people help for the issues that are actually keeping them homeless, keeping them unemployed, keeping them on the street,” he explains. “This is a place of hope. It’s in a place where it’s needed the most, and it’s going to be the thing that people are going to point to and say, ‘something shifted in Red Deer and this is it’”.