By Steve Norde – CONTRIBUTING WRITER [via eaglecitizen]

When Saginaw’s senior citizens are ready to leave their homes but don’t need nursing home care, the city doesn’t offer any options.  Joe Knox Reed wants to change that.

Reed, managing director of the 1897 Community Development Corp., hopes to work with private developers to build an independent senior living center. He hopes the $17.5 million to $18 million project will soon go before the Saginaw Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council.

“This will be a private community designed around seniors 62 years and older who may or may not still be working, but are capable of independent living,” Reed said.

Residents will have a choice of one- or two-bedroom apartments, Reed said, adding the plans are to have about 178 units. The one-bedroom apartments will be about 770 total square feet and rent for approximately $1,000 a month. The two-bedroom apartments will be just over 1,000 total square feet and rent for about $1,200 a month. All apartments will have full kitchens and be wired for the Internet.

Besides having private apartments in the four-story structure, Reed said the 175,000-square-foot facility will include amenities like a swimming pool, clubhouse, library, movie theater, game room, art room, beauty shop and dining hall. Like other such facilities in the Metroplex, there will be full-time staff available to help coordinate activities like aerobic classes and trips to the grocery store or mall.

“We’ve needed something like this for our seniors for quite a while,” said Bud Starnes, of Bud Starnes and Associates, a local real estate and property management firm. “There is no senior citizens’ living quarters anywhere in Saginaw. We have a lot of people who have grown up here, but there is no place for them when they are still on their own and independent.”

Reed said his group is trying to think of everything for the residents. There is a hope to coordinate with local doctors and nurses for house-call visits. Reed also said there is discussion on arranging a system to help seniors sell their present homes in order to move into the facility.

“This is going to be a pretty nice facility,” he said. “Maybe it will not hit the five-star mark, but will be close.”

The complex will not offer nursing home care, he added.

1897 Development is working with the local design firm of Still Waters Design/Build Group. “Still Waters has a passion to bring in commercial development,” Reed said. The company’s design studio is near the intersection of Boat Club Road and Golf Club Drive.

Still Waters President Dinah Martinec said the project is the largest her firm has done. “We want to bring life to the Saginaw community,” she said of the housing project. “We want it to be a draw for an interaction with the community.”

The design’s concept, said Christopher C. McCray, Still Waters’ design/architectural director, “is to ensure this is a positive thing” not only for the seniors living there but also for children at the nearby Saginaw Elementary School and the people in the surrounding residential area.

Martinec said the development is meant to promote interaction between the seniors, the school, government and residents.

“The design concept is to have it appear as a village of its own,” she said. “Parts of the building have a nice personal scale, even though it is a four-story building. We want to accommodate connections between the inside and the outside.”

While he would not name the other partners, one of which already owns the majority of the required 5 acres of property, Reed said they are local people, and the financing is moving ahead despite the current economic situation. “The general contractor, design firm, banks — everybody is accumulated as one large team,” Reed said.

Most of the financing will be through private equity, Reed said. However, 1897 Development also will be contributing some funds. “Right now, we are in a fundraising mode,” he said, of the non-profit organization. He asked that those interested in helping, call his office at 817-510-1320. He hopes to have his Web site — 1897cdc.org — up and running in the next couple weeks.