(NOTE: For the next 10 days or so, Nick in the Morning will be on assignment or off work because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. This will test how much you're going to miss us over an extended period. We plan to be back for one day next week — Wednesday, Jan. 17. We promise we've saved some good stuff for then. See you soon.)
Good morning, troops. It's Thursday, Jan. 11.
Senior citizens who reside at Buehler Home in Peoria want it to be more like home, evidently.
That's part of the reason new additions planned for the Central Peoria not-for-profit facility don't appear to conform to the stereotype of assisted living.
"They want much more space," Mike Mahoney, the Buehler Home chief operating officer, said about the preferences of current and potential residents. "They want something comparable to where they're living now."
The proposed additions have that desire in mind, it appears.
Each of 12 two-bedroom units planned for the northeast corner of the Buehler Home property, at 3415 N. Sheridan Road, are to be about 1,200 square feet. Also planned are 16 one-bedroom units, each at about 850 square feet, for the south end of the property.
The two-bedroom units are to be built first, with construction expected to commence this spring.
The apartments are to mesh with units under construction currently. Among that group is a four-story addition that is to feature 10 two-bedroom apartments with enclosed parking and rooftop dining, according to Amanda Chambers, the Buehler Home marketing and sales director.
Those units and the proposed new two-bedroom ones are not being built on speculation, apparently. All those apartments are spoken for, according to Mahoney and Chambers.
"We have balconies and walk-in closets and two full bathrooms, washers, dryers, full kitchens, the whole thing," Mahoney said.
The overall Buehler Home population is expected to increase slightly once the apartments are occupied. Right now about 210 people live there, Chambers said. About 240 residents are expected once everything is complete.
The projected number is close to what the Buehler Home population was in the 1980s and '90s, when the facility featured a higher proportion of studio apartments, according to Chambers.
"What we're really doing is expanding the footprint but not essentially expanding the population on campus," Peoria architect Charles Fischer said.
Fischer presented the Buehler Home plan last month to the city Planning and Zoning Commission, which gave its unanimous support. During a meeting Tuesday night, the City Council offered final, positive say.
Some commission members suggested Buehler Home officials develop and share a master plan for their property. Mahoney suggested a plan exists and has been helping to guide for the past decade additions to a facility that opened more than 80 years ago.
"We're basically just trying to match as best we can what's been there for years and trying to meet the needs of the aging population," Fischer said.