St. Leonard to launch $30M project - Dayton Business Journal:

evittiebodum1296.blogspot.com
, a 97-acre nonprofit retirement communittin Centerville, is planning a $30 million expansion this year that will add more than 80 The community will build a 60-bed dementia unit and a 21-ber freestanding traditional assisted-living unit. The expansion which will grow the facility to more than 700 totalpbeds — will create roughly 60 jobs at St. which currently employs 360. Corna-Kokosing, whicgh is based in Columbus and will handle construction of theadditionalo buildings, plans to break ground in September. The project is a part of an overal l campus expansionat St. Leonard.
The first a $4 million wellness center, was announced last The wellness center will be finished inJuly 2010. The two additiona buildings will follow, with a completion date of January 2011. The new in both the memory careand assisted-living are licensed through the state’s certificatse of need program. They will be private roomxs with larger floor plansthan St. Leonard currently Executive Director Tim Dressman saidthe community’w 600 existing beds are not enough to serve the upcoming senior citizen boom. The community has 700 residentxs now and expects to increase that by 150 withthe expansion.
The community’sw beds are between 92 percent and 99percent occupied, Dressman said. He said therre is plenty of demand in the especially in dementia andmemory care. Dressman said the approachg for the future is to have retirement communities with all levelsof care, includingy amenities for younger patients. Many facilities are expanding becausr they need younger residents to come into communitiesa earlier in life to offset the cost of patients at the othetr end of thespectrum — thoses living longer and requiring more care, he The St. Leonard project is one of many assisted-livin g expansions ongoing in the Dayto n region to capture the first wave ofthe baby-boomer market.
Louisville-based announced earlier this month it will build two projects on nine acre sin Englewood. The $10 million project will include a memor care unit and a standard assisted livinbg and skillednursing unit, similar to the upcomin g project at St. Leonard. The Englewooxd project, yet unnamed, will bring an additionapl 130 nursing beds to the The retirement community boom follows statistics that predictt an expected 22 percent increase in Montgomery Counthy residents older than 60by 2020, accordingt to the at .
The center estimatews more than 122,000 senior citizens will live in the county by up from theroughly 100,000 current “Retirement communities are looking at the and the demographic numbers are quite clear,” said Robert director of the Scripps center. “The 85-plus group is the fastestt growing group inthe country.” Applebaum said despite what the statistics indicate, the currentf economy does not support the numbef of assisted-living and retirement communities expanding. “Occupancy is relativelgy stable,” he said. “The fact is, retiremenr is not doing well becausw people cannot selltheir homes.
” Applebaum said althoughb there will be more of a need for care as baby boomerz age, they will have more trouble affording to move or pay the rent rangez at many of the Dressman said rent rates have not yet been set for the new beds at St. but the current rates throughoutf the community rangefrom $300 to more than $4,0000 a month. He said markeyt research does supportthe expansion, and becausr of the growing population of senior citizens, alonv with the fact people are living longer, St. Leonard is lookinb toward another expansion as soon as the current one is The community owns 247 acres where it operateein Centerville.
“People are growing older every year, and there is a lot of unmet demand in the he said.