Assisted-living project planned for southwest Cedar Rapids

Stoney Point Meadows, an 84-unit assisted living and memory care facility, is planned for land southwest of the intersection of 16th Avenue and Stoney Point Road SW in Cedar Rapids.

Developer Robert Sample, who developed West Ridge Care Center in northwest Cedar Rapids, said the $15.98 million project will be financed with a $12.25 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $3.73 million of private equity investment.

Sample, who has developed seven previous senior-living projects in Iowa and Colorado, said the timeline for the project includes obtaining conditional HUD commitment in the next 60 to 180 days, completing construction drawings after the HUD AGREEMENT, and getting final HUD loan approval.

Sample expects construction to start in early 2017, with completion in 12 to 15 months, in early 2018.

Winkelman Building Corp. of St. Cloud, Minn., will be the general contractor, and local subcontractors will be used for the project. Gaius Nelson of Nelson Tremain Architecture and Design for Aging of Minneapolis will be the architect.

Sample said he and his wife, Elaine, will live and work at Stoney Point Meadows, the eighth senior living or health care facility that he has developed in Colorado and Iowa.

Sample said Stoney Point Meadows will employ between 60 and 80 people, including nurses, certified nursing assistants, food service and marketing staff. He said the project also will generate temporary construction jobs.

A market study completed by Senior Market Research Associates in Cleveland, Tenn., found the unmet demand in 2018 for assisted living in Cedar Rapids will be 163 units and 78 units for memory care. Sample said Stoney Point Meadows will provide 37 percent of the needed assisted-living units and 31 percent of the memory-care units.

“The demand for our project is very high,” Sample said. “The unmet need is expected to continue growing as the baby boom generation retires and looks for assisted-living and memory-care facilities.”

AARP projects the number of people age 65 and older will double by 2030.

Sample, who has owned a pharmacy in Grand Marais, Minn., since 2011, is selling the business and moving back to Cedar Rapids. He owned Sample Medical Pharmacy, Sample Pediatric Pharmacy and Sample Diabetic Center in Cedar Rapids from 1977 to 2002.

George C. Ford
TheGazette.com