A Denver developer is teaming up with a national operator of senior living communities to open a $38 million facility in Boulder.
MGL Partners is buying the property at 2525 Taft Drive from the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, which operated the building for about 25 years as a senior housing property.
It is planning a gut renovation of the nine-story building, which is adjacent to Boulder Creek and the University of Colorado campus.
“The building is functionally obsolete and needs to be redeveloped,” said Mike Gerber, principal at MGL.
The company also will replace the skilled-nursing facility with new buildings. The project will have a total of 117 units when it’s completed in the spring of 2009.
MGL and Seattle-based Leisure Care are trying to establish an affiliation with the university that would enable residents to audit classes and participate in cultural activities on the campus, said Tana Gall, senior vice president at Leisure Care.
The community will include a theater, spa and salon, exercise studio and Brain Fitness Center.
Leisure Care, which manages 41 communities with nearly 7,000 units in the United States and Canada, has several facilities in Colorado, including Harvard Square in Denver, Winslow Court in Colorado Springs and Clear Creek Commons in Golden. Others are under development in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.
“Colorado’s got good demographics, and it has always ranked high for great places to retire,” Gall said. “Boulder is particularly appealing because it’s such a hard market to get into.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
