Builder drops plan for massive SLO senior living community — but another may be in works
Plans for an elaborate retirement community in San Luis Obispo have been dropped after “numerous delays and obstacles” forced investors to ditch the project — but another similar development could still be a possibility.
Il Villaggio was expected to bring more than 400 independent and assisted senior housing units to a property on Los Osos Valley Road, as part of the Froom Ranch development plan.
The 109-acre site located next to Home Depot is owned by John Madonna.
Villaggio CEO Mark De Lotto told The Tribune the project was meant to fill a need in San Luis Obispo County.
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“Our extensive market studies indicated that San Luis Obispo County needed a life plan community which would provide a fuller continuum of care and a higher level of services than other senior living communities,” De Lotto wrote in an email to The Tribune. “There are currently no life plan communities of this size and character in San Luis Obispo County.”
Since the project was approved by the San Luis Obispo City Council in 2020, nearly 600 people either signed up to become residents or expressed an interest in living in the community, De Lotto said.
That included the project’s investors, who all largely planned to live in the community once it was completed, he said.
Despite the interest, the project “faced numerous delays and obstacles developing the Froom Ranch site,” he told The Tribune.
Those included an extended environmental review and specific plan approval process, the COVID pandemic and “the financial crisis, which has severely impacted the availability of financing for senior living construction projects such as Villaggio,” he said.
“The continuing uncertainty surrounding the availability of financing extended the timeline for development far beyond the investors’ time horizon,” De Lotto said. “Subsequently, the investors have decided to discontinue pursuing the project.”
An email sent to Villaggio’s mailing list on Dec. 31 notified recipients that the company was abandoning its plans to develop the community.
“We remain hopeful that this much needed community will be built sometime in the future but regret that we will not be part of that effort,” read the email shared with The Tribune.
De Lotto said because Il Villaggio was formed specifically to establish a community at the Froom Ranch property, there are no plans for it to develop a similar project at a different location.
He noted, however, that Madonna is still moving forward with environmental permitting for the entire Froom Ranch development — which includes the plan for the senior living community Villaggio was slated to build.
That means a life plan community could still be in the cards for the location.
De Lotto said the permitting on that is expected to be finalized by the end of 2024.
A request for comment from Madonna was not immediately returned Friday morning.
