Touchmark Living Centers Inc., the Beaverton, Ore.-based operator of the Waterford on South Hill retirement community, is proceeding with the first phase of a planned $20 million, 60-home independent-living project near its main campus.


The company has bought for the development 16 acres of land a few blocks northeast of its 20-acre campus, which is located at the southeast corner of 29th Avenue and Pittsburg Street.


Bernie Neil, a vice president here for Touchmark, says the company plans to start site work and infrastructure improvements on the new property next month, and expects to break ground on three model homes there yet this year. Those homes should be completed by next spring, Neil says.


The company also plans to build a 2,000-square-foot clubhouse building there that would include a meeting room, an exercise room, a kitchen, and a banquet room.


Neil says work on that structure also could start late this year.


The site for the planned development, to be called Waterford at Grapetree Village, is along Lee Street, just north of and over a hill from an Applebees Neighborhood Grill restaurant at 2007 E. 29th. The west end of the Waterford site abuts the Grapetree residential development.


Spokane architect Glen A. Cloninger co-developed Grapetree, and his firm, Glen A. Cloninger & Associates, is designing the homes for Waterford at Grapetree Village.


Touchmark has yet to select the builders the will construct the homes.


The first phase of the Waterford development will include 20 homes, including the model homes, and will be followed by two more 20-home phases, Neil says. Touchmark expects to complete the development in about two years.


Touchmark will offer nine different home plans. Neil says all will be one-story homes, but some will have daylight basements.


The homes are expected to range in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet of floor space and likely will range in price from $225,000 to $400,000, Neil says.


Waterford at Grapetree Village will be a gated community, he says, with heavily landscaped common areas and walking trails for residents.


Also, Neil says, The property is heavily treed, and well be conserving most of those old-growth pine trees.


Waterford currently has a total of 258 living units, including 172 independent-living units and 86 assisted-living units.


Jeff Bair, executive director of Waterford on South Hill, says Touchmark hopes the off-site development will broaden the age of the clientele that the community serves by appealing to people at the younger end of the 55-and-over age range.


Weve done some focus groups, and theres a population of individuals who have an interest in the benefits of homeownership, but want more time for interests and avocations, Bair says.


Also, he adds, They are looking to future care way down the road and would be able to move into other types of units at the Waterford campus, and receive additional services or care, later on.


Ricki Cox, Waterford on South Hills sales and marketing manager, says clients will buy homes under a new type of arrangement for the retirement community.


Under that arrangement, she says, when a homeowner in the development dies or decides to move elsewhere, Waterford will arrange the sale of the home to someone else and give the previous owner or their heirs 75 percent of the homes appreciated value.


Homeowners in the new area will pay monthly fees for landscaping and snow-removal services and will have the option to pay for additional amenities, such as housekeeping.