{"id":57287,"date":"2020-01-07T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/senior-housing-project-gets-tentative-go-ahead\/"},"modified":"2020-01-07T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T00:24:58","slug":"senior-housing-project-gets-tentative-go-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/senior-housing-project-gets-tentative-go-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior housing project gets tentative go ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
Expanding senior housing for Juneau is an easy goal for the city Assembly to get behind, but members had some qualms about giving $2 million to a private company for a new facility in Vintage Park.<\/p>\n
At a Committee of the Whole meeting at City Hall Monday night, the committee ultimately voted to send the ordinance on to the regular Assembly, but not without debate.<\/p>\n
In the proposed ordinance, the City and Borough of Juneau would give $2 million to Torrey Pines Development, a private developer which would build and run a $32 million assisted living facility on Clinton Drive in Vintage Park in the Mendenhall Valley.<\/p>\n
That facility would have room for 88 beds for assisted living, memory care, and a range of the senior services and amenities, according to the text of the ordinance.<\/p>\n
But while Assembly members agreed more senior housing was needed and the project overall would be beneficial for the community, there were concerns from members the project would ultimately be successful.<\/p>\n
Part of Torrey Pines’ plan calls for making eight of the available beds reserved for Medicaid patients. If Medicaid patients were not available, the company would want the city to provide a 12-year tax abatement program, according to an information packet<\/a> provided at the meeting.<\/p>\n According to the proposed terms, Torrey Pines would pay for the property over 20 years, paying nothing for the first three years. The company would then pay nearly $4,500 monthly for seven years and then more than $12,000 monthly for 10 years for a total of nearly $1.9 million. Under the city’s tax abatement <\/a>program<\/a>, Torrey Pines would pay no taxes for the first 12 years of payments to the city.<\/p>\n