The stage one plans for a 94-unit senior living facility were approved for Memorial Pointe in Southgate.
The Campbell County Planning and Zoning Commission approved the senior living facility, which is part of the larger $65 million Memorial Pointe project. The project also includes the 200-unit luxury Vicinity Apartments that opened Sept. 19, 2024, and 85 upscale single-family homes being developed by Fischer Homes.
The proposed building is an 83,000-square-foot single and multi-family building. No detached housing is proposed. The building will have 94 dwelling units with a total of 98 beds.
The project’s site was heard in a 2020 planning and zoning case, in which a zone change was approved for the 29-acre area. The purpose of the Feb. 11 planning and zoning meeting was to concentrate on a new design for the senior living facility.
“We’ve already done some work on this for previous designs,” said Campbell County Principal Planner Kirk Hunter. “We originally heard the case for senior living as part of a zone change back in 2020. We went through a stage one review with a request for variances and conditional use permits, and they were approved.”
No new streets are proposed as part of the project. The complex has entrances off Memorial Pointe Drive and off the cul-de-sac at Fairbanks Lane.
Allied Development Group hired Cash Waggner & Associates as the applicant for this project. Allied Development Group owner/founder Ross Oberhausen said Arcadia Senior Living Communities was the project’s applicant, but they are not moving forward.
Oberhausen said the previous project’s design cost was high due to state regulations.
He said that in 2018, Kentucky merged licensed assisted living with unlicensed assisted living and personal care. Under those regulations, if a memory care unit has more than 16 beds and has living units above it, the construction type of the building changes. Arcadia’s design was for 19 beds in a three-story building.
“When the Arcadia group went out to price their building, it came back over $30 million just for the shell of the building,” Oberhausen said. “That did not meet any of the bank debt service coverage ratios, and they then decided to sell the property.”
Oberhausen said he paid for a market study that looked at income-qualified seniors (only seniors who could afford their services) who have three or more activities of daily living (going to the bathroom, being transferred from a wheelchair to a bed, etc.) Within their market area, 1,134 seniors met those criteria.
Then, they removed the same number of competitive units within the same market area, like The Seasons in Alexandria. After removing those, Oberhausen said they have 780 in unmet demand.
Southgate Mayor Jim Hamburg attended the meeting and asked about the project’s projected number of employees and construction timeline.
Oberhausen said if he can get all commitments in and escrow funds to close, he hopes to start before Aug. 15 and take about 18 months. He anticipates 14 employees when they first open, with a gradual fill-up.
