Senior living project gets HUD loan OK

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ground will be broken Nov. 17 for Stoney Point Meadows, a $19 million assisted-living and memory-care facility in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Approval of a $14 million mortgage by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was the final hurdle for the project on land southwest of 16th Avenue and Stoney Point Road SW.

The facility will have 95 units, including 67 for assisted living and 28 for memory care, developer Robert Sample said. He added that construction will begin this month and completion is expected by November 2018.

'We will have over 100 residents when we are fully operational,” Sample said. 'Some of the units are two bedroom and can accommodate more than one adult.”

Stoney Point, which has been two years in the planning, will employ nearly 100 people. The project has 66 investors, most of them from the Cedar Rapids area.

Sample said $6 million in equity financing has been raised for the project. Initially announced in May 2016, Stoney Point was delayed when bids came in $3 million above the estimated cost.

A study completed by Senior Market Research Associates of Cleveland, Tenn., found the unmet demand in 2018 in Cedar Rapids will be 163 units for assisted living and 78 units for memory care.

'The demand for our project is very high,” Sample said. 'The unmet need is expected to continue growing as the baby-boom generation retires and looks for assisted-living and memory-care facilities.”

The Heritage Area Agency on Aging in Cedar Rapids, which helps seniors navigate care options, has seen calls from people seeking assisted-living services increase 75 percent in three years.

Stoney Point will be the eighth senior living or health care facility that Sample has developed in Iowa and Colorado. The assisted-living units will be equipped with washers and dryers and the facility will have an emergency generator in the event of power failure, he noted.

Sample, who has owned a pharmacy in Grand Marais, Minn., since 2011, is selling that business and moving back to Cedar Rapids. He owned Sample Medical Pharmacy, Sample Pediatric Pharmacy and Sample Diabetic Center in Cedar Rapids from 1977 to 2002.

Tealwood Senior Living will be the management company for Stoney Point. The Bloomington, Minn., company manages or owns nearly 50 facilities in Iowa and Minnesota.

'I will be the administrator and my wife, Elaine, will be my assistant,” Sample said. 'We will live and work at Stoney Point Meadows every day.”

Winkelman Building Corp. of St. Cloud, Minn., will be the general contractor and local subcontractors will be used for the project. Gaius Nelson of Nelson Tremain Architecture of Minneapolis will be the architect.