In CoStar on March 23, 2021
Frequent joint venture partners Confluent Senior Living and MorningStar Senior Living said they have taken the first steps toward building a senior living complex in Orange County, its first such project in California.
The Denver-based developers have broken ground on a 166,000-square-foot property near the intersection of Marguerite Parkway and Avery Parkway in Mission Viejo, California, a city of roughly 100,000 residents that sits around 40 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
The project, scheduled to open in early 2023, is designed with many of the safety features the companies have developed this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, such as touchless appliances, advanced HVAC systems and antimicrobial countertops.
“Enhancing quality senior living options is a pressing need in California, now more than ever,” John Reinsma, managing director at Confluent Development, said in a statement.
Confluent and MorningStar are among the growing number of senior housing developers that have worked to adapt both their existing and planned properties to function in a world changed by COVID-19.
In January, the companies announced that they’d designed an 81-unit senior housing complex for Denver’s University Park area that featured a slew of upgrades in response to the pandemic, after months of conversations with designers and architects about the new trends emerging in the industry.
“It’s a little bit of a tricky dynamic, because while we need to be aware of the implications of COVID and the long-lasting effects, we also need to make sure we’re not making drastic design changes that would remove what’s important in a senior housing community,” Reinsma told CoStar News in an interview in February.
This is the joint venture’s first senior housing project in California and the 14th senior living project the companies have developed together. They have developed six properties in Colorado, three in New Mexico, two in Oregon, one in Arizona and one in Iowa.
The Mission Viejo project includes studio, one- and two-bedroom suites with 126 parking spaces, and its outdoor space will include a swimming pool, dining area and dog park.
Plans also call for a spa and wellness center.
Irvine, California-based KTGY Architecture + Planning is the architect on the project. Snyder Langston, also based in Irvine, is the general contractor. Portland, Oregon-based David Evans and Associates is the civil engineer on the project.