Retirement News : Seniors : Assisted living facility for Hackensack comes closer to reality

Assisted living facility for Hackensack comes closer to reality

Date Added: 09-05-2005

All the ingredients are coming together to make a 38-unit assisted living facility proposed for the city of Hackensack become a reality.
Monday afternoon, the Hackensack City Council and project developer Jim Johnson of Backus agreed to begin work on the crucial developer's agreement needed to advance the project.
Mayor Erick Hedren asked the council and city department heads to provide input as soon as possible on everything they could think of related to the project — rezoning, sewer and water service, streets, etc.
Once that input is compiled, City Attorney Ted Mellby and an attorney representing the developer will sit down to draft a developer's agreement, after which a public hearing will be called.
Johnson said he would like to start construction around June 1. The earliest the project could be finished would be in October.
Johnson, owner of Linda Kay Properties, Inc. (LKP), also operates two similar facilities for seniors in the Brainerd area.
He plans to build the assisted living facility on two parcels of property east of Highway 371. One is the site known as the "Old schoolhouse site" now owned by the city, and the other is an adjacent privately-owned tract. Johnson is in the process of purchasing both.
The three-story building would total 51,000 square feet, with 38 living units (one or two people each), communal dining and recreation areas, storage spaces, offices for the volunteer Faith In Action of Cass County organization and a possible future community medical clinic. Garage space would also be available on site.

Architectural sketches
Architectural plans presented to the council show four different apartment designs. Twelve units will be 500-square foot efficiency suites; 12 will be small, 580-square foot one-bedroom units; 12 will be larger 750-square foot one-bedroom units; and two will have two bedrooms with 1,100 square feet. Rent, including two meals per day, will vary according to unit size and number of persons.
Personal care services also will be available on site and an "as needed" basis. They will include housekeeping and personal care such as bathing, dressing, medication reminders, escort to meals, check-ins and bedtime assistance.
Registered nurses will be available for medication management. The facility will be staffed around the clock, seven days a week, with medical staff on call.
Other features include a commons area where residents may congregate during the day, a fireplace, dining room, exercise room, workout facilities, indoor pool and a beauty and barber shop.
"The project is still conceptual, and details could change," added Cass County Economic Development Corporation Consultant Gail Leverson, who has worked with Johnson and the city for several months.
The project's estimated total cost is $3,385,982. Financing from four lenders has been committed to the project.
Once in full operation, the facility would create about 30 to 35 new jobs; about 20 full-time and the rest, part-time. Initially Johnson expects to employ eight employees; but that would grow with full occupancy. He projected the first year payroll at $123,755. Positions would include housekeeping, office staff and nursing assistants.
Other indirect benefits are supplies, groceries and services bought from local businesses, employees shopping locally, and more families moving to Hackensack to take jobs.

Community assistance
Johnson asked the council to consider providing assistance by waiving costs for sewer and water connections ($6,000) and for a building permit ($5,000).
Because the site will need storm sewer to handle runoff from roofs and parking lots, he suggested those costs also be negotiated. Leverson said the city might check on tax increment financing to fund public infrastructure such as the storm sewer, as well as other possible subsidies.

The clinic component
Leverson also stressed that while Johnson has offered office space in the assisted living facility to be used for a community medical clinic, that proposal is totally separate from the facility itself.
Assuming fiscal incentives and the developer's agreement can be satisfactorily arranged, the assisted living facility will go ahead, with or without the clinic.
"Hackensack has been looking at its health care needs for quite a while, and Jim's project just happened to come up around the same time. But they are definitely separate," she emphasized .
The proposed medical clinic would be located in a 3,400 square foot space as a branch of a still-unnamed area hospital. Medical services would be available to all residents, not just assisted care facility residents.
Because new medical clinics lose money at first, in order to open a branch in in Hackensack, the hospital (a nonprofit) has said it would need a fiscal subsidy for a few years. Several residents, including Hedren, have been meeting with local businesses, individuals and service groups and have collected $61,000 in pledges for a clinic subsidy, to be paid over a three-year period. None of the pledges would go to the developer, only to the nonprofit clinic and hospital.
Johnson said he is considering offering space rent-free for a year or two, but that is still being negotiated.

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