Four years ago, Hunt Midwest, a real estate developer with a focus on industrial, commercial, retail, mission critical, multifamily, residential and senior living, invested $32 million to build four assisted living/memory care communities in the Kansas City metro area, all to be managed by Principal Senior Living Group under the “Benton House” brand. The final community of that investment just opened in Tiffany Springs, Missouri, but Hunt Midwest isn’t stopping there.
The developer has already broken ground on two communities in Raymore and Blue Springs that will open later this year. Plus, there are two more set to break ground in Lenexa and Kansas City, which will bring the total for Hunt Midwest to eight communities, each of which includes between 80 to 88 beds, a portion of which is set aside for memory care. These four new projects represent a $33 million, or roughly $98,200 per bed, investment. Kansas City has been one of the most active metro areas in terms of units of assisted living under construction, according to NIC MAP® data. There are currently four properties and 410 units of assisted living being built in and around Kansas City, representing 18.3% of the current inventory there, which may be an underestimate.
Plus, Olathe, Kansas-based Harmon Construction just announced last month that it was nearly done renovating a trio of assisted living communities in the area developed by Alexian Brothers Health System (part of St. Louis, Missouri-based Ascension Health). The investment of about $13.3 million will undoubtedly help those communities better compete with the new construction, so we will have to wait and see how occupancy fares over the next couple of years in the Kansas City area.
