Local commercial real estate consultants have part of the Jewish Federation campus in Maitland under contract, with plans to convert an existing building into a senior living and memory care facility.
Located at 851 N. Maitland Ave., the 13-acre property is owned by the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, and occupied by tenants like the Roth Family Jewish Community Center and the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center.
The Jewish Federation has applied to amend its Planned Development zoning to allow for a senior living facility. No issues for parking or stormwater retention impact should arise.
A 41,318-square-foot building on the southern end of the property formerly used by the Jewish Academy of Orlando (previously named Hebrew Day School) would be converted to residential use for a 54-bed facility focused on memory care patients.
The building has been vacant for almost two years, with the school consolidating its operations elsewhere on campus.
The Jewish Federation is also asking to subdivide the property once its PD amendment is approved in order to sell the former school building to Seasoned Living Properties, LLC, an investment vehicle managed by Greg Roebuck, director of design-build services at Aagaard-Juergensen General Contractors, and Richard Hostetter, a former attorney and founding member of Orlando EB5 Investments.
Scott Marchard, a partner and director with Whitestone Realty Capital in Orlando, is a third equity partner in the project.
“It’s very well located at the corner of Maitland and Maitland, and with Alzheimer’s and other dementia raging across America memory care facilities are in growing demand,” Hostetter told GrowthSpotter.
“We’ve been working on this project for two and a half years. We have an operator that we will be bringing on board, a strong regional company.”
The use is allowed within the underlying zoning code that encompasses the property. A May 3 presentation was made to the Planning and Zoning Commission as a courtesy review. The two requests would next go through city staff review, then the Development Review Committee and back to PZC before City Council.
For the Jewish Federation this is stricly a real estate transaction, and the organization won’t be involved in the new memory care facility.
Closing on the land sale is anticipated this summer or fall, said Paul Lefton, spokesman for the Jewish Federation. Interior buildout and renovation should run seven to nine months once permitted, Hostetter added.
This section of the campus under contract was part of an expansion by the federation in the early 2000s that anticipated growth that ultimately wasn’t pursued, Lefton said.
Purchase and conversion of commercial buildings to serve ALF and memory care projects is increasing locally and across the country as costs rise for construction materials, and demand from an aging population grows.
The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to grow by 3.3 percent per year, or roughly 1.7 million, and over the next five years that figure rises to 18 percent (9.2 million), according to a recent CBRE report.
Through the third quarter of 2017, memory care occupancy nationwide began experiencing a rebound, reversing a downward trent that began in Fourth Quarter 2015, according to a year-end market analysis by The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
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