DEFIANCE, Ohio — The mayor of Defiance says up to 2,000 of the city's older population need better services, such as housing, transportation and entertainment.
The city has a plan to offer that all in one place.
The Defiance Planning Commission and city council approved the $26 million project for a senior housing development on Latchaw Drive, just south of the ProMedica Defiance Regional Hospital, last year.
The city intends the housing to be a one-stop shop for seniors with scheduled transportation, activities and even a full-functioning restaurant.
Mayor Mike McCann hopes Ally Development's Group's project can help solve a larger issue in Defiance, too: he says senior citizens make up about 20% of the city's population and many of them don't have the housing or the services they need.
Ross Oberhausen, CEO of Lousiville, Ky.-based Ally Development, is planning for multiple apartments for older people, including 65 assisted living units and 29 memory care units for people with dementia. The company also wants to build six townhomes for independent living.
The apartment prices have not yet been determined.
"We can also now take care of the seniors and their loved ones in a manner that we are familiar with on a day-to-day (basis), Oberhausen said. "That's going to relieve a lot of the pressures on the families and the caregivers that are currently waiting to get in because seniors want to age in their communities."
McCann said the project has been in the works for about two years and he is excited to see it come to fruition.
"What the residents will have is the ability to go to an area where they can play cards together, they can play bingo together, they can watch movies, they can dance, they can exercise, all those things that seniors like to do," he said.
Construction on the housing could potentially start in May, Oberhausen said, and be completed by the summer of 2025.
He also expects the project to bring more than 40 jobs to Defiance.