Heather Wright/The Independent

The Alvinston Legion has a new home on Nauvoo Road.

The branch started raising money for a new building on the site of the former Columbia Hotel several years ago and had socked away $600,000 according to Terry MacDonald.

“We were looking at a long time to raise enough money to be able to start to put a shovel in the ground,” she said. The new building was expected to cost $2 million with the costs rising constantly.

“A lot of people were hesitant (to give) because of when we were going to build, because they might not be alive to see it.”

Then Legion member Ken Alderman and his wife, Barb, made a suggestion.

The tenants of their restaurant, Riverstone, had left the building and he was hoping to sell. “We just thought, ‘Well, we can help out by taking lesser money and help the Legion. We’re both members there and so might be a good fit,” he said.

“We are all just over the moon excited about the whole thing. And it’s a great location,” says MacDonald.

“They gave us a fantastic deal. We were told, actually, by our superiors in the Legion (Ontario Command) that we’d be stupid to turn it down.”

While the plan to take over the much larger and newer building seemed like a no brainer, from the first offer till the Sept. 8 closing date, it took two years to satisfy Lambton County planners to allow the project to go ahead.

In that time, MacDonald says the Legion sold the former Columbia Tavern property and its River Street property to developer Jim VanderWal who plans to build apartments on the old Legion site with retail on the first floor in the space.

“We were lucky to be able to sell our properties up there. We weren’t sure who would want it, but all the pieces are just falling into place.”

The executive is already holding meetings at the new branch and all activities will have to be moved there by January. Until then, MacDonald says over $200,000 in renovations will be needed. And the Legion will continue raising money to pay the new mortgage.