Affordable independent living for low-income seniors is the aim of a proposed $15.4 million development slated to be built on the property of the Elant-owned nursing facility in Beacon.
The project, called The Birches of Fishkill, would provide housing for seniors age 62 and older who are at 50 percent or less of median income. The facility would offer residents the prospect of independent living outside full-time nursing homes.
“It”™s a real opportunity for a chance of community and a chance of a home within the communities these seniors have lived in their whole lives,” said Steve Aaron, managing member of Kingston-based Birchez Associates L.L.C.
The facility is to be built on the present Elant property at 22 Robert R. Kasin Way off Route 9D in Beacon. Elant at Fishkill partnered with Birchez Associates for the development of this facility and to provide health care in the communities they already serve.
The facility would provide 62 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors. The cost of buying into the community had not yet been determined.
The main building will consist of apartments, amenities and nursing offices. Two separate cottage-style buildings will provide for more apartments. All 72 apartments will be handicapped-accessible and meet the standards set forth by the American With Disabilities Act.
Amenities will include a theater, media room, community room, game room and a library.
Registered nurses and athletic trainers on the premises will provide care weekly with no additional charge to residents.
“We continue to push the envelope to provide amenities that make this home,” Aaron said.
The facility”™s design is also intended to provide energy efficiency to reduce costs. A similar design at The Birches of Esopus in Ulster County was awarded a 2010 New York State Energy Research and Development Agency”™s Award for Excellence.
“There are certainly not many models of affordable independent living in the country,” Aaron said.
Currently there is demand in the Fishkill community for 1,169 units of independent senior living apartments based on the waiting lists for similar facilities. The Birches at Fishkill would ease this demand, Aaron said.
The project recently was awarded $1.4 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of America and its member Rhinebeck Savings Bank.
The grant will help fund the construction, which is expected to begin in the fall pending final approvals.
