Senior living center may be built in north Macon
Plans are in the works for a senior living facility with more than 100 units in Providence Town Center off Bass Road.
A notice of the plan was sent recently to residents of the Providence subdivision, which is adjacent to the proposed site at 1540 Bass Road. Land owner Bass Capital Group LLC is partnering with Vero Beach, Florida-based Watercrest Senior Living Group LLC to develop the project, according to the notice.
Attempts to reach someone with Bass Capital and Watercrest were unsuccessful.
Watercrest “plans to develop and operate a 92,289-square-foot 107-unit assisted living & memory care community on about 5 acres in Providence Town Center,” the notice said. The facility would have 75 assisted living units, with a mixture of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, as well as 32 memory care units. Plans include a swimming pool.
The facility would join the Homewood Suites hotel, Natalia’s restaurant and other medical offices and businesses already in the center.
The company expects to submit an application to the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission for a conditional-use permit and a parking variance this month, according to the notice. The company has had a pre-development meeting with P&Z staff, but it has not submitted an application yet.
The senior living facility is expected to employ about 60 people, according to documents presented to the P&Z office.
Watercrest has set up an open house 3-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Providence Clubhouse at 120 Providence Blvd., so anyone can learn more about the project, the notice said.
The need for senior living facilities might be increasing as the U.S. Census Bureau recently announced that by the year 2030 all baby boomers will be older than 65.
“The aging of baby boomers means that within just a couple of decades, older people are projected to outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history,” Jonathan Vespa, a demographer with the Census Bureau, said in a news release. By 2035, there will be 78 million people 65 or older compared to 76.7 million under the age of 18.