Immanuel builds for growing senior population
Among the $147 million Flathead County’s health-care service providers have put toward the creation of new health care facilities since 2012, a recent project aims to meet the needs of Montana’s aging society.
Immanuel Lutheran Chief Executive Officer Jason Cronk outlined the senior living facility’s $12 million in current projects on Tuesday during the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon.
“We have 10,000 baby boomers turning 69 every day, and that’s the beginning of this huge tsunami that’s coming through a pipeline,” Cronk said. “We’re living in a state that’s growing older than the national average, and we’re living in a county that’s growing older than the state average.”
More than a quarter of Montana’s population will be seniors by the year 2030 — a full two decades before the demographic shift sweeps the rest of the nation, Cronk said.
In Flathead County, seniors will make up a quarter of the population by 2020, according to state projections.
Cronk said to meet that growth, Immanuel Lutheran decided to create a five-phase, five-year plan for improvements on its 13-acre property south of Kalispell Regional Medical Center. The plan includes remodeling its 60-year-old nursing home, building more independent apartments and updating its memory-care wing.
In April, Immanuel Lutheran began the first phase of the project by expanding its temporary retreat for people recovering from surgery from 16 private rooms to 48.
In July, Immanuel Lutheran began work on an unlimited assisted-memory-care living facility with 24 private rooms for people with Alzheimer’s. The project connects the assisted-living memory care with its assisted-living wing and is expected to open in July 2017, Cronk said.
Cronk said retirement communities draw residents that have time and the disposable income to give back to the local economy, “and we’re creating more jobs at the same time.”
He said including architectural fees, consultants and planning, phase one of the project goes beyond the $12 million estimate and moves closer to $20 million. The first phase will also employ 60 to 70 construction workers for the project and create roughly 30 long-term jobs in the valley.
Phase two will create independent apartments called Villas at Buffalo Hill Terrace and total roughly $14 million.
The three-story apartment complex will have 36 apartments that range from single rooms that are 840 square feet to suites that are 1,600 square feet. The apartments will be built next to an auditorium that will house a chapel and an indoor pool and hot tub.
He said while construction won’t begin on the apartments until next summer and they aren’t expected to be completed until the winter of 2018, roughly 80 percent of the apartments already are reserved.
“We attract people who have time and money to give back to our local economy and we’re creating more jobs at the same time,” Cronk said.
The final phases will give the facility’s nursing home a more traditional home environment by creating neighborhoods of 16 units. Instead of being centralized around a nursing station, the residents will receive treatment, dine and socialize in smaller settings — a more natural environment, Cronk said.
“There’s a need for seniors to have a comfortable place to live in the community,” He said. “These are the type of amenities that today’s seniors are looking for.”
Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.