Mentor Ridge memory care facility gets preliminary OK for Newell Creek site

An assisted living facility specializing in memory care is proposed on part of a 10-acre parcel in Mentor’s Newell Creek development.

The developers of Mentor Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center — approved in 2013 for the north side of Norton Parkway near Garfield Road — seek to add a two-story, 56-bed memory care facility. The new 56,520-square-foot structure would sit to the east.

“Someone may come into that facility that has some memory impairment, and that may go all the way up to somebody who doesn’t recall who they are and really need to be in a locked-down unit,” said David Mitchell, representing property owner LTC Realty Holdings VIII, LLC. “We don’t have that capability at the nursing home. Some nursing homes do. We do not plan that for the existing building there, so, hence, the reason we want to build a second structure there.”

Like the nursing home, the project required city approval of a modification to the Newell Creek development plan. The Planning Commission supported the amendment as well as a preliminary site plan on May 3.

There are three similar care centers in the city and another under construction.

“The need for Alzheimer and dementia facilities is only growing,” Mentor Economic & Community Development Director Ronald M. Traub said. “Having such facilities in Mentor allows family and friends to stay in touch.”

Mentor Ridge developers are “extremely pleased” with occupancy at the 99-bed nursing home, which is at near capacity with 83 patients, Mitchell said.

“We have a waiting list, and the reason we have a waiting list, although we’re not full, is we’re being very selective — or the operator is being very selective — about the type of patients it takes,” he said.

The memory care project still requires final site plan approval.

In February, the commission denied a development proposal for across the street — south of Norton Parkway — catering to the older population.

Pepper Pike-based Omni Property Companies sought to build a 171-unit, 184,500-square-foot senior care campus with 19 single-family villas, an 88-unit independent living facility, a 44-unit assisted living facility and a 20-unit memory care facility.

The commission decided that the proposal was a significant departure from the office designation on the site.

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