Senior facility construction slated

Construction is scheduled to start this week on a $12.2 million, 71,750-square-foot senior care facility in west Greeley.

Grace Pointe will be open by July 2009, said Steve Briscoe of Continuum Health Management of Greeley, who is building the facility at 1919 68th Ave. It will feature 110 units and will offer nursing services as well as assisted living, rehabilitation services and special memory services for patients with Alzheimer's, Briscoe said.

The general contractor for the facility is Schauer Construction of Pueblo. Continuum Health Management manages facilities in Cortez, Wheat Ridge and two in Pueblo, either as assisted living or nursing facilities.

Briscoe said he has been in the long-term, senior services business for 31 years and has been in Greeley since 1981. Throughout the years, he's opened 170 facilities in 19 states, he added.

Continuum has been in business for 13 years.

"This is the only business I've been involved in for my adult life. This facility in Greeley will be one that I'd be proud to have my mother live in," Briscoe said.

Grace Pointe will have 106 private rooms and four semi-private for a total of 114 beds, with some independent living quarters available, Briscoe said.

John Green, an area economist in Fort Collins, said the new facility fits with a trend of people planning ahead and retired people who continue to move into northern Colorado. He said such a facility means a $25 million economic impact to the area, will probably need upward of 100 employees, and will act as a stimulus to the nursing programs at Aims Community College and the University of Northern Colorado.

"About the time that facility is done, the economy might be turned around and people will start thinking about retiring again. Plus, we're still in the top five places to retire and these kinds of facilities will needed," Green said. "The timing of this facility is pretty good."