Modular Bradenton senior care facility could be model for industry in U.S.
BRADENTON -- A 52-bed senior care facility that went from a foundation to two finished stories in just one week on 14th Street West could be the model for things to come in the senior housing industry.
Starting last Monday, nearly 40 55,000-pound modular units manufactured by a Champion Homes of Lake City were carefully lifted onto blocks and slab and piled two stories high on the site of a former mobile home park. The resulting structure is the first of its kind in the United States, according to its developer, and may become a model for quickly meeting the needs of an aging population.
BSV Holdings, a Weston real estate investment company, expects Comfort Cove Senior Care to have the final touches put on its assisted living and memory care units by January, just seven months after the first construction worker drove onto the property. Brent Crego, the company's chairman, said that's at least two months ahead of the construction schedule for a structure built entirely on site.
On Friday, a construction
crew from Anthony Crane USA of Pinellas Park had only a few sections left to place. Workers scrambled throughout the day towing new sections under the crane, tying straps around them, then guiding them into place. Once the 200-ton crane had a section airborne, it took the operator just five minutes to put it in place.
"It's like a Lego set," said Crego. "If you need a product built in a timely fashion, why wouldn't you use modular?"
As four other approved senior care facilities make their way through the pipeline in Manatee County's planning and building departments, Comfort Cove is sprinting toward its opening day. Designed with 28 beds available for memory care patients and the remainder for residents who need help with meals, medication and the tasks of everyday life, the facility will start operations in a market with a good deal of need. Crego said he expects to have every bed of the private pay, market-rate project filled by mid-2015, even as the local average price to live in similar facilities hovers around $4,600 a month.
Beyond providing assisted living for some of the county's older residents, Comfort Cove fills a vacant piece of commercial land on the business spur of U.S. 41 that county development officials have long wanted redeveloped. A mobile home park was demolished at the 6.6-acre site several years ago. After BSV purchased the property for $1 million in 2013, county economic development officials helped speed permitting for the project, further trimming the construction schedule.
"We were interested in it because it was on the 14th Street corridor," said Karen Stewart, the county's economic development program manager. "We were excited to have something new and pretty in that part of town."
BSV is using Comfort Cove as a demonstration project of sorts. It is the first of two modular senior care facilities the company plans to build in Manatee County and 14 statewide. While BSV will own and operate those senior care centers, it will also sell a "turnkey" version that other investors can purchase.
Crego said he believes modularly built senior care will be popular. It's scalable, from just a handful of units on a single floor, to more than 100 in a four-story configuration. The cost of the facilities will vary by size. The 45,000-square-foot Comfort Cove is expected to be completed on a $7.6 million construction budget.
Much of the appeal of this construction model, Crego said, will come from the short construction schedule and the build quality. Assembled in a factory, Comfort Cove's residential units came with a number of extras that would be time-consuming to build on site, including carpeted rooms, fully tiled bathrooms and custom woodwork and doors. Because the room interiors are finished, local trade workers will only be needed to connect air conditioning, electrical and plumbing systems, and to attach siding and roofing to the building.
Crego said he expects the residential units to be quieter than in a hotel.
Once open, Comfort Cove will have a staff of 30 to 50 people. It will be managed by Phoenix Rose Management, a company owned by BSV.
Matt M. Johnson, Herald business writer, can be reached at 941-745-7027, or on Twitter @MattAtBradenton.
This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Modular Bradenton senior care facility could be model for industry in U.S. ."