Construction is set to begin soon on a new housing development in northeast Cedar Rapids that will utilize a “household model of care” for those dealing with advanced forms of memory loss. Kris Hansen, CEO of Cedar Falls-based Western Home Communities, said the $25 million development, first announced in July 2021, will include one 16-resident […]
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Construction is set to begin soon on a new housing development in northeast Cedar Rapids that will utilize a “household model of care” for those dealing with advanced forms of memory loss.
Kris Hansen, CEO of Cedar Falls-based Western Home Communities, said the $25 million development, first announced in July 2021, will include one 16-resident cottage and two 20-resident cottages with apartment-style accommodations.
The 16-resident cottage will offer skilled nursing services, as well as being licensed to care for those suffering from chronic confusion or dementing illness (CCDI) conditions. One of the 20-unit cottages will offer memory support services for those who don’t fully meet nursing home criteria, while the other will offer traditional assisted living services. That portion of the development will be known as “The Cottages at UnityPoint Way,”
Mr. Hansen said the development is also expected to include 11 villa-style duplexes, two to three bedrooms per unit, with each side comprising 1,650 to 1,915 square feet of living space. That portion will be known as “The Villas at UnityPoint Way.”
The entire development project, at 8405 Council St. NE in Cedar Rapids, will be adjacent to the existing St. Luke’s Transitional Care Center, a short-stay, skilled nursing facility for those recovering from an injury, surgery or serious illness.
The new development is modeled after a similar, larger campus already in place in Cedar Falls, Mr. Hansen said.
The “household model of care” creates a sense of community within a space, so individuals recognize their surroundings as home, including personal choice and natural rhythms of the day, to ensure a state of well-being.
The cottage design won “Design Innovation of the Year” at the International Dementia Conference in Birmingham, UK, in 2015. Mr. Hansen said the cottages are designed to resemble traditional residential areas, rather than clinical or institutional facilities.
“That's really the secret about those cottages,” he said. “They've got garages on the front. That's the fun part, asking folks to find the skilled nursing and dementia nursing facilities on our campus. They can't do it, because they’ll look like traditional duplexes.”
The development plan for the project was approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council in April, but some council members said they were concerned about the presence of a sinkhole bordering the development area. Mr. Hansen said an engineering firm is studying the situation and gathering soil borings to determine where the development can be safely placed to avoid future stability issues.
“It’s not one of those sort of sinkholes that’s going to open up and swallow things,” he said. “It’s something that's been there. So we’re trying to measure that stability, what we can do and how close (we can come).”
Mr. Hansen said if supply chain issues can be resolved, Western Home hopes to begin construction on the development this summer, with units ready to occupy by the summer of 2023.
He also said the company could be interested in bringing more memory care and assisted living facilities to the Cedar Rapids market, if warranted.
“We would definitely be interested in doing more in the market, and in the same area if possible,” he said. “We like to try to keep things as centralized as possible. But we’ll go where the demand leads us and where the opportunity exists.”
