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New projects offer a variety of options to Northbrook seniors
North Shore Place, a combination of assisted living and dementia care faciity, soon will rise on a seven-acre site at 1000 Sunset Ridge Road near the intersection of Sunset Ridge Road and Skokie Blvd. | Courtesy of SAS Architects & Planners.
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Updated: March 15, 2013 12:09PM
NORTHBROOK — Senior living accommodations – both assisted and independent – are becoming popular in Northbrook.
Senior Lifestyles is clearing ground at 1000 Sunset Ridge Road for the construction of North Shore Place, a five-floor senior assisted living housing facility.
Additionally, Housing Opportunity Development Corporation was slated to appear before the village board Feb. 12 with preliminary plans to build a four-story, affordable independent living rental building at 300 Pointe Drive.
North Shore Place, which is much larger, will offer a total of 188 residential units on the west side of Sunset Ridge Road near its intersection with Skokie Boulevard, when it is finished by the end of the year.
“North Shore Place will be the latest in more than a dozen facilities we’ve designed over the last decade that contain dementia care components,” said SAS President Steven E. Sussholz, AIA. “Since the firm began in 1954, we’ve worked on more than 120 eldercare projects – representing the entire continuum of care – including nursing homes, sheltered care, assisted living, supportive living, congregate care, dementia care and independent living facilities.”
The development will be constructed in two phases, with the first phase consisting of 156 units.
The units are to consist of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with either a full kitchen or small kitchenette.
The smallest unit would be about 400-square-feet, with two-bedroom units consisting of about 750 total square feet.
The proposed facility is to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week for around-the-clock care.
It also will have a memory care component, containing one-bedroom/one-bath units about 350 square feet in size with large common areas to encourage residents to be active and socialize.
The facility will offer a beauty parlor, spa, store, fitness facility, billiards area, theatre and banking spot, as well as walking paths and gardens.
However, the more affordable 72,800-square-feet independent living structure is to provide 78 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 80 parking spaces, according to Michaela Mitchell Kohlstedt, a village senior planner.
If approved, the building also would contain common areas with meeting spaces, sitting areas, a laundry room and an exercise room, as well as on-site management.
Depending on funding received for the development, the developer is proposing to have geo-thermal heating and cooling, a green roof, an energy-efficient building envelope, and energy star appliances, she added.
Besides landscaping, a walking path, bicycle rack and an outside sitting area also are planned.
For residents to qualify for the housing, they must be on a fixed income, able to live independently and earn less than about $36,000 per year.
The proposed rent for a one-bedroom would range from $400 to $700 a month, while a two-bedroom would run from $500 to $800 per month, Kohlstedt said.
For comparison, rents at the village-sponsored Crestwood Place range from $537 to $677 per month depending upon the size and location of the unit, she added.
And in the meantime, the community is awaiting the results of a survey Northbrook seniors were asked to fill out and return by June 15.
The survey, prepared by the village’s senior services commission and its community relations commission, asked what services seniors would want to continue living at home.
