A four-story memory care facility is proposed near the southeast corner of Blue and New roads in Greenfield.
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GREENFIELD – A developer of assisted living facilities is planning a memory care center with over 100 units in the city and has future intentions for independent living nearby.
Vita of Greenfield, LLC is pursuing the project just south of Brandywine Community Church, which is located at the southeast corner of Blue and New roads. A 112-unit memory care facility is planned to the southeast of the church. According to filings with the Greenfield Department of Engineering and Planning, the building will be four stories in the front and one story in the back. Plans include studio and one-bedroom units, as well as dining rooms, kitchens, multipurpose rooms, lounges, a library, salon, physician room and offices.
Exterior building features will include brick, fiber cement board and mansard roofs. David Kuehnen of Cripe, an architecture firm with offices in Indianapolis and Evansville involved in the project, said at a Greenfield Plan Commission meeting this week that exterior colors will be made up of grays and dark grays. He also said the facility will have about 38 employees working on its maximum shift.
The plan commission approved a development plan for the project after hearing from Kuehnen and Joanie Fitzwater, Greenfield planning director.
“We want the plan commission to feel comfortable that the proposal is compatible with surrounding land uses,” Fitzwater said, adding the location has a residential zoning designation under the city’s unified development ordinance, or UDO. “Assisted living is an institutional use, but it’s still residential in nature and essentially a multi-family development. Our desired development pattern established in our new UDO is to accommodate a diversity of housing opportunities where we can.”
The Brandywine Community Church property is on just over 14 acres, and the church owns the approximately 23 acres to the east and south. The plan commission also approved the church’s request to re-plat the land into four lots – one for the church; one to its east, which it plans to keep for now; and two to its south, which it is working on selling to Vita of Greenfield.
“There’s been a lot of collaboration and discussion with the developer,” said Briane House, a lawyer representing Brandywine Community Church. “Brandywine is satisfied with the proposal.”
The drive off Blue Road’s east side leading to the church will be moved south to serve as a shared access to the four lots.
Fitzwater said Vita of Greenfield is expected to return to the plan commission in the future to seek development plan approval for an independent living development proposal on the lot directly to the south of the church.
Last year, The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority announced Vita of Greenfield, developed by Vita Investment Holdings, LLC, will receive $21 million in multifamily bonds and $799,296 in tax credits annually for 10 years for the construction of 110 rental units for seniors of mixed income.
Vita could not be reached for comment. The firm has at least one other development in Indiana – Vita Independent Apartments in Marion. That community is slated to open this month, according to a web page operated by Priority Life Care, a Fort Wayne-based senior living management company affiliated with the development.
