Saturday, November 16, 2013 COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE www.columbiatribune.com 3
Assisted-living center set for Chapel Hill Road
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St. Louis senior living company is gearing up for construction on a $20 million, 101-bed assisted living campus on Chapel Hill Road east of Fairview Road. “We’re just getting everything in order with our plans, and we hope top start moving dirt within the next 90 days,” said Dave Baylis, chief development officer of Provision Living Senior Communities, which will develop and operate the complex. Provision Living closed on the purchase of the 11-acre site, which is on the north side of Chapel Hill across from Martinshire Drive, in October. The property is bounded on the north by the County House Branch creek. Provision Living bought the land from Central Missouri Land LLC, which lists Bryan Bartles as a manager, and used the property in a deed of trust that secures as much as $2.115 million. Columbia changed its zoning ordinance a couple of years ago to make it easier for senior housing communities to develop, in part to encourage an industry that has ranked Columbia in trade and mainstream publications among the top places to retire. That change allowed Provision Living to
move forward with its Columbia project, for which it obtained state approval last year. “It will be the first community in a residentially zoned area” in Columbia, Baylis said. “We feel we will be able to provide a different product than the other assisted living communities in Columbia.” Provision Living operates more than 20 senior living communities in nine states, and Baylis said construction of the Columbia facility should take a little more than a year. Its Columbia campus plan includes about one third of the 101 beds dedicated to memory care. According to documents submitted to the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee, which issues Certificates of Need for assisted living and skilled nursing projects, Provision Living expects to lease 40 percent of its beds its first year of operation in 2015
and grow that to 90 percent by 2017. According to a report from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Boone County is expected to have a surplus of 91 assisted living beds in 2015. Baylis, though, said the long-term growth potential in Columbia is why the company is moving forward with its project here. He pointed to the publications that rank the area as a top spot for retirees, as well as its many health care providers. “The population of Columbia is growing faster than the state of Missouri and specifically for seniors,” he said. “It’s a draw.”
Regal return
The former Transmission Plus at 302 Business Loop 70 W. is now Regal Car Sales and Credit, a used-car and financing shop based in Tulsa, Okla. Regal Car Sales and Credit opened in 1986 and now has 15 locations, with 750 to 800 automobiles in its inventory at any one time, owner Bob Mulkey said. The Columbia outlet will hold about 75 cars in its lot. Mulkey, a 1976 University of Missouri graduate who still comes up to Columbia for MU games, said that knowing the town, he figured it would
be a good spot for one of his stores. It’s the size of market he likes to target, and when one of his son’s friends expressed interest in taking charge of the new store, he decided to go for it. It took him a while to find a piece of ground he liked, though. “We negotiated that thing for almost nine months,” he said of the Business Loop property. “There wasn’t a lot of real estate that we really wanted.” Regal had a soft opening about a week ago, Mulkey said. There’s a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of remodeling he wants to do, and he plans a grand opening around Jan. 1. “The plan is in one to two years to open one in Jeff City,” he said. Transmissions Plus closed several weeks ago, and Columbia Transmissions To Go purchased its phone number and book of business, an employee at the Vandiver Drive shop said. Street Talk couldn’t independently verify who owned Transmissions Plus, but Mulkey said he believed the property owner also owned the business. Mulkey purchased the property from Ralph Hennerich. Mulkey took out a deed of trust on the property that secures as much as $392,000 in
financing.
eyeing an office
A new 14,000-square-foot medical office is planned for the southeast corner of Forum Boulevard and Forum Katy Parkway, near the entrance to the road leading to the Forum 8 Movie Theater. Local dentist Kent Willett owns the 1.4-acre site and recently had a development plan approved by the city. He plans to sell it to Tim McGarity, a local ophthalmologist whose office is in Doctor’s Park on West Broadway. Chris Danforth, a marketing coordinator for McGarity, said the practice hasn’t decided when it will break ground on the site, when it hopes to move or whether it will lease any extra space. “All those details are still pretty soft right now,” Danforth said. McGarity, who emphasizes LASIK and cataract surgery on his website, took over the practice about two years ago from Kell Yang. Danforth said the office plans to rebrand itself around the beginning of 2014 as Restoration Eye Care. Business reporter Jacob Barker can be reached at 815-1722 or jbarker@columbiatribune.com.
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