Senior housing planned at former Sisters of Notre Dame site

Dec. 5--Another development is in the works at the site of the former Sisters of Notre Dame Toledo provincial headquarters in West Toledo.

Cincinnati-based developer MVAH Partners plans to construct senior lofts on a portion of the property at 3837 Secor Road, near the intersection of Secor Road and Monroe Street.

That's in addition to the 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital slated to open in late 2020. Alabama-based Encompass Health Corp., one of the country's largest providers of post-acute health care services, plans to spend $27 million to build the 48,000-square-foot, single-story hospital.

Toledo Councilman Tom Waniewski, who represents District 5 where the site is located, said he expected supplemental or complementary businesses to spring up there, since the rehabilitation hospital will only use about half of the 18.6-acre site. The independent senior housing would take up about 2.6 acres.

Mr. Waniewski believes more development likely is on the horizon.

"There's a possibility that other portions of the acreage will be sold off," he said.

Tom Gibbons, Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions director, said his staff hasn't received a site plan yet but is generally in support of the proposal. The hospital and the housing complement each other.

"They're like uses in the area, and that's kind of what we envision for the parcel," he said.

The developers are holding a public neighborhood meeting between 7:15 and 8:45 p.m. Wednesday to explain their plans for the lofts. The meeting will be held at the Sanger Branch Library at 3030 Central Ave.

MVAH Partners is preparing to open a similar development at 4436 Navarre Ave. in Oregon in the summer of 2020. That complex will feature one- and two-bedroom apartments exclusively for residents age 55 and older.

The former Sisters of Notre Dame property was the subject of a drawn-out, often heated zoning fight when Kroger Co. proposed constructing a $26 million, 123,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace store there. Opponents cited increased traffic congestion and other concerns in their push for Toledo City Council to deny the grocery store chain's rezoning request, but city council ultimately approved it in 2017.

Kroger purchased the buildings and demolished them, but the company then announced it would delay construction to focus on new technology such as curbside pickup; Scan, Bag, Go; and grocery delivery. By the end of 2018, the company backed out of building the new store and signed an option to sell the 18.7-acre property to a private investment group.

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