New developer pursuing senior assisted living, memory care facility near Lake Huron Medical
Four years after a Grand Rapids-based developer first got approval, another operation is stepping in with plans to build a massive senior living facility near Lake Huron Medical Center in Port Huron.
The city’s planning commission signed off on preliminary site plans for a 52,416-square-foot facility at 1403 Catherine McAuley Drive during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
From the Saginaw-based Oasis Senior Living, the outfit is close to 10,000 square feet bigger than what was proposed previously and approved by the city for Leisure Living Management — a development later called Bridgewater Terrace — and similarly includes plans for both assisted living and memory care.
“Recently, Leisure Living came to us about this property. … They decided they didn’t want to proceed, so they recommended it to us,” said Tahir Kahn, a representative for Oasis. “It was about 50 units before, so we decided to increase it to about 79, 80 based on the baby boomer demand in this area. And the other change we have is the extension of the interior courtyard.”
The site is located on 6.88 acres along the north side of Catherine McAuley Drive, west of the hospital, on a greenspace between other medical facilities, and east of 16th Street.
According to Oasis’ site plans, it will be fronted with two entrances off the drive and a 58-space parking lot, while the rooms surrounding two interior courtyards include a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom units.
There will also be shared living room space, a salon and movie theater, and dining room space.
Kahn said Oasis, which operates facilities around the state, said it’d include “about 60 assisted living and 19 memory care” units in terms of scale.
When asked about individuals staffed at the facility on Tuesday, he said, “I think at one time any shift could be about 15 to 20. At most and fully occupied. In terms of jobs, it’s about 30 to 40. Mostly, it’s about caregivers. We have three different shifts.”
Planning commissioners’ approval is contingent upon signal plan review and a building plan with city administration.
No formal timeline was given for the development on Tuesday.
Representatives with Leisure Living couldn’t be immediately reached in follow-up as of Wednesday.
Following their previous site plan approval in July 2019, developers in January 2020 had hoped the then-$9.5 million project to have 44 units, operating within a year.
By June, however, Leisure Living put their plans on hold.
“Unfortunately, the economy and the cost, shortly thereafter with COVID, and skyrocketing prices, they have had to hold off,” said David Haynes, the city’s planning director. “It was the recommendation with Oasis coming forward … (with) kind of a middle ground from the original designs as far as size and scale.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: New developer pursuing senior living, memory care facility near Lake Huron Medical
