Residential developer Miller Commerce LLC is partnering with Arkansas-based Reliance Health Care to build a $17 million skilled nursing center.
Brian Brown, Contributing Writer
5/24/2016 11:50 AM
The Medical Mile just got a little wider.
Springfield residential developer Miller Commerce LLC has partnered with an Arkansas-based health care provider to build a roughly $17 million, 120-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center just west of Kickapoo High School.
Dubbed Birch Pointe Health and Rehabilitation, the 68,000-square-foot complex is designed to offer short-term rehabilitation, long-term care and memory care. Each of the three services would be segmented into individual zones featuring their own dining areas, open spaces and courtyards, according to a news release from Miller Commerce. Amenities will include a bistro, wireless Internet and a salon.
Wes Holland, director of development for Conway, Ark.-based Reliance Health Care Inc., said the ownership group comprises Miller Commerce and principals from Reliance Health Care via Primrose Senior Living LLC. Reliance Health Care, an administrative-services provider with 38 locations across Arkansas, will manage the Springfield facility, Holland said. He said construction is expected to begin in late June and take about 12 months to finish.
The project will be built at the corner of South Avenue and East Primrose Street, directly across South Jefferson Avenue from Kickapoo High School and just blocks away from Cox South Hospital and several health facilities along the Medical Mile.
“Obviously, the location near the hospitals is certainly something that was attractive to us,” Holland said. “We are excited about the location and design of the building."
Matt E. Miller of Miller Commerce said the company jumped at the chance to buy the 5.4-acre lot for an undisclosed amount about a year ago from the Gillenwaters family with the development in mind. According to the Greene County Assessor record, the 2016 taxable-appraised value of the property is $680,100.
“We knew we wanted to be in the licensed-care space on that site, we just didn’t know with whom or exactly what,” Miller said, adding he connected with Reliance Health Care through a consultant. “We feel like we are in very good hands on the operational side with those guys.”
Bates & Associates Inc. is the architect for the project, but Holland said a general contractor has not yet been named.
Known for its center city student-housing projects including The Jefferson, The Monroe and Deep Elm, Miller Commerce broke into senior-living development in recent years through The Fremont, at 1520 E. Bates St., and Terra Vera, a $7.5 million independent-living complex still under construction at 2715 S. Kimbrough Ave.