Rockwood Retirement Communities, of Spokane, has redesigned The Summit retirement-apartment tower project planned for its Rockwood South Hill campus, making it taller, more slender, and less expensive to build.

With the redesign, the organization plans to break ground on the $51 million project—reduced from a previously estimated cost of about $90 million—next June or July.

Alan Curryer, president and CEO of Rockwood Retirement Communities, says, "This schedule allows us time to complete the construction documents, pre-sell more of the apartments, and obtain the required financing."

He expects residents will be able to move into the new building by the summer of 2015.

The new structure is slated to be built just west of a current retirement-apartment tower at 2903 E. 25th, formerly known as Rockwood Manor but renamed The Ridge a few years ago. Curryer says the new structure will have 14 levels, including two levels of underground parking, and a total of 65 living units, all with exterior views.

Previous plans for The Summit, first announced in the fall of 2009, called for a 10-story structure with 93 living units. By decreasing the number of living units, Rockwood can arrange financing and move forward more quickly.

Curryer declines to disclose how many units have been pre-sold, but he says the time line that he outlined isn't contingent on additional unit sales.

In addition to fewer living units, The Summit will have fewer common spaces than the project originally envisioned. The building will include, however, a fitness center, a spa, a creative-arts studio, a library, and a ballroom. Also, the top floor will feature what Rockwood is calling the Sky View Lounge, with views looking northeast toward Mount Spokane, and will be available to all residents.

Apartments in the building will range in size between 900 square feet of living space and 2,210 square feet of space. Curryer says the top two floors each will have a single penthouse suite, and the other floors of the building will have seven units each.

Buy-in costs for the units range from $223,000 to $679,000, and monthly fees are expected to range from $1,995 to $3,450 for a single resident, depending on unit size, Curryer says. For a couple, the cost will be an additional $850 a month.

In addition to The Summit project, initial plans called for $14 million in improvements to The Ridge tower, which is seven stories tall and has 105 living units. Curryer says Rockwood plans to hold off on those improvements, but it will take a close look at financing terms when it secures the money to build the Summit.

"We may be able to do a lot of the work we are prepared to defer," he says.

The Summit is being designed by NAC|Architecture, of Spokane, and Perkins Eastman, of Pittsburgh. Spokane-based Walker Construction Inc. will be the general contractor.

Rockwood Retirement Communities is owned by nonprofit Spokane United Methodist Homes and has a total of 329 living units at the 52-year-old Rockwood South Hill complex, including 270 independent-living units and 59 assisted-living units.

The organization also operates Rockwood at Hawthorne, which is located at 101 E. Hawthorne, on Spokane's North Side. Established in 1958, that complex has a total of 84 living units, including 54 independent-living units and 30 assisted-living units.

In a previous interview earlier this fall, Curryer said that those two centers collectively have an occupancy rate in the mid-90 percent range.

At the depth of the recession, in 2009 and 2010, that rate was "a bit shy of" 90 percent, he said.