Hoping to attract more people at the younger end of the 55-and-over spectrum, Touchmark Living Centers Inc., of Beaverton, Ore., has proposed a $20 million offsite expansion of independent-living housing for its big Waterford on South Hill retirement community.


The company has agreed to buy from Spokane architect Glen Cloninger a 16-acre site a few blocks northeast of the Waterford campus, and is seeking approval from the city of Spokane for a 60-home planned-unit development there, says Jeff Bair, executive director of Waterford on South Hill.


This is going to expand what we have been offering in the Spokane area for the last 15 years of so, Bair says. We are looking forward to this project with great anticipation.


The site for the proposed development is located on Lee Street, just north of and over a hill from an Applebees Neighborhood Grill restaurant, at 2007 E. 29th. The development sites west end abuts Grapetree, a subdivision Cloninger was involved in developing known for unique design twists in the homes located there.


Waterford held a neighborhood meeting on the project in March. Bair says that so far, the company hasnt had any indication of resistance from neighbors.


Bernie Neil, a vice president here for Touchmark, says the retirement center operator expects to start work this summer on two model homes at the planned development, which is to be called Waterford at Grapetree Village. Additional homes would be constructed there as buyers come forward. The homes would be custom designed.


Construction of the homes would occur in two, 30-home phases. The first phase should sell out within 18 months, he says.


Houses in the development are expected to range in price from $225,000 to $400,000, and in size from 1,400 square feet of living space to 3,000 square feet of space, Neil says.


Independent-living homes at Waterford are sold through whats called a lifetime lease, under which the company sells a home for the owner when he or she moves out, and the company keeps 25 percent of that resell transaction amount.


As it does at the independent-living cottages on its nearby campus, Waterford would offer services, including maintenance, landscaping, and snow removal, for a monthly fee.


Neil says some of the homes will be larger than is usually found in many 55-and-over communities, so the development would have the feel of a conventional neighborhood, rather than a senior-living development.


Such a setting is expected to draw a slightly younger age group, he says, and thereby broaden somewhat the demographic to which Waterfords facilities appeal.


Residents in independent-living quarters often will need added services from Waterford, such as assisted living, skilled nursing, or home-health care, as they advance in age and sometimes move to those other types of facilities as needed, Bair says.


The proposed project would be the second one started recently by a retirement community on Spokanes South Hill that would feature independent-living single-family structures. In the other project, Spokane United Methodist Homes Inc., of Spokane, is finishing up work on a $9 million addition to its Rockwood South retirement community, near 25th Avenue and Southeast Boulevard. That addition will include 17 homes and eight duplex units.


At Waterford at Grapetree Village, several Spokane-area home builders are expected to erect residences, but the only contractor to be selected so far is David G. Mark Construction Inc., which also built homes in the Grapetree neighborhood, Neil says.


The homes are being designed by Touchmarks in-house architectural office and by Glen A. Cloninger & Associates PS, of Spokane, Neil says.


Waterford currently has 320 living unitsincluding independent-living cottages and apartments, assisted-living units, and skilled-nursing unitsat its 20-acre campus, which is located at the southeast corner of 29th Avenue and Pittsburg Street.


The 60-home addition would be Waterfords first expansion here since it added 14 independent-living cottages at its campus in 1999.


Touchmark opened Waterford on South Hills first units here in 1989 and completed its large main building in 1991. The retirement community is one of 13 that Touchmark operates in the U.S. and Canada.