Senior living project moving to next phases

People agree that housing for seniors in the area is needed, but the effort comes with a hefty price tag in the $15-$20 million range. 

The Grand Coulee Dam Area Senior Center spent $7,500 on a feasibility study for senior housing in the area in collaboration with Centerline Development, which owns the former Center School and surrounding land on Spokane Way in Grand Coulee. 

The study’s conclusion that there would be demand for such a facility and service led to a $20,000 engineering study. The senior center contributed another $17,500 toward that, with the other $2,500 being covered by private donation.

The next step is to create a non-profit foundation, according to Cheryl Hoffman, president of the GCDA Seniors. The foundation would be the owner of the proposed facility, which would need to manage at least 50-60 beds of senior care in order to sustain the project.

Creating the non-profit, estimated to cost $3,000 to establish, “will enable the project to move forward with fundraising via donations and grants and to begin working with lenders,” Hoffman wrote in an email to members of the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club.

Hoffman spoke to the group June 8, explaining where the project is, where it needs to go, and asking the group to donate toward it and developing the nonprofit.

Rotary President Nancy Zimmerman-Boord wrote in an email to Hoffman that the club would have an answer for her later in June as far as the group’s commitment toward the project. 

Hoffman told the club that the facility would be run by Senior Services of America, which manages numerous senior living facilities in the Pacific Northwest, and would house 50-60 beds of seniors who need varying degrees of care. Residents would pay either privately or through Medicare, with the ratio of private-to-Medicare funding dictating the monthly cost per resident at the facility.

Nic Alexander of Centerline Development, in a presentation to the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce on June 9, explained that they would sell the property to the non-profit organization, which would then run it with SSA.

Both Alexander, speaking to the chamber, and Hoffman to the Rotary, explained that the non-profit would be able to prioritize local citizens to live in the facility, addressing a concern that people from out of the area, who may have more money, would take up the rooms themselves.

Centerline could separately develop simple housing units in the adjoining area, which in theory could be bought by seniors who could possibly then transfer to the senior housing project units in the future.

Once the non-profit is established, that group can then go after more money for the project, both Hoffman and Alexander explained.

Rachel McClure, a representative for Congressman Dan Newhouse in the north part of Washington’s 4th District, attended the chamber meeting and said she may be able to help with the effort, at least by writing letters of support from the congressman when they go after grants to fund the project.