A hot spot for seniors across the Rock Hill region turns dirt on new living facility

John Marks
·2 min read

A new senior living site broke ground in Lake Wylie on Tuesday. Sunflower Springs of Lake Wylie will feature 101 units, 83 of them assisted living and 18 memory care spaces.

Sunflower Springs will be the fifth senior living community in South Carolina for Florida-based SRI Management.

Don Bishop, CEO of SRI Management, said the company is thrilled to break ground on an exceptional community that will become a vibrant hub for seniors.

“Senior living plays a vital role in enhancing the well-being and quality of life for older adults, and we are committed to providing the highest level of care, comfort, and engagement for our residents,” Bishop said.

Officials with Anvaya Investments and the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce joined in the groundbreaking Tuesday. The 243 Latitude Lane address for Sunflower Springs is beside the chamber property. Sunflower Springs will add about 45 full-time jobs to the area, for more than $1.5 million in annual salary and wages.

While Sunflower Springs could draw from a larger area, its Lake Wylie location gives the site plenty of opportunity to serve seniors already there. Recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows the Lake Wylie area south of S.C. 49, east of the Three Points intersection and north of Crowders Creek has a more than 1,000 residents age 65 or older.

The 26.6% of all residents in that census tract who are 65 or older is second in York County only to a western Rock Hill tract (27%) near West Main Street, McConnells Highway and Heckle Boulevard. In the three-county Rock Hill region, only two other tracts have higher percentages. A tract just north of Lancater has 27.7%. By far the largest percentage comes from an Indian Land tract that’s home to Sun City. There are more than 5,500 seniors there, at 61.7% of that tract’s total population.

Sunflower Springs adds to a host of senior living plans across the region that include age-restricted or age-targeted subdivisions, new assisted living proposals, memory care sites or adult day care facilities across mainly York and Lancaster counties, including Rock Hill and Fort Mill.