A new senior housing complex is proposed in Blaine, and advocates say the $25 million project could address two needs, by kick-starting development on a vacant parcel and providing needed residential nursing care to Anoka County seniors, many of whom now must leave the county to get continual care.

Walker Methodist and Welch Companies are seeking to build the 142-unit project on the Hipp Farm site, at Jefferson and Main streets. Phase 1, which will go before the city planning commission in August, would include 34 nursing home units, 44 independent living units and 36 assisted living units, as well as 10 care suites, 16 memory care units and two guest suites.

Two phases might be added later, depending upon market conditions. The second would add 36 skilled nursing units, and Phase 3 would add another 100 units tailored to demand.

With a projected payroll of $2.9 million, Phase 1 alone could provide as many as 80 jobs, from executive and medical to food service and housekeeping, said Walker Methodist Vice President Denny O'Donnell. If the project proceeds, Phase 3 could provide as many as 120 jobs with a payroll of $4.5 million.

"It's a significant investment in the community at a time when there isn't as much investment as there used to be," said Blaine Community Development Director Bryan Schafer. "It takes a piece of land that's been wanting people to develop it; a $25 million project for the first phase, that's a big investment."

Welch hopes to start site preparation this fall, and to complete all three phases by the end of 2012. A statewide moratorium on additional nursing home beds stands, but Walker Methodist plans to move units from its Minneapolis campus to Blaine.

The developers of the privately funded project are asking the city's Economic Development Authority for a $636,500 reimbursement for the costs of site preparation, improving 124th Street and demolishing a three-story farmhouse that remains on the site. If approved, those funds would come from pooled tax-increment financing from other projects. Tax-increment financing has not been sought for the housing complex; tax revenue from the site would be distributed as usual.

The project will cover five or six acres. The rest of the land eventually would include commercial development and moderate density housing, most likely town houses, Schafer said.

As in many outer suburbs, the percentage of residents 65 and older in Blaine and Anoka County is lower than for the state and nation. People 65 and older make up 7.1 percent of the population in Blaine and 8.4 percent in the county, compared with 12.1 percent in Minnesota and 12.5 percent nationwide.

"Overall, it's a younger community than most," Schafer said. "But having said that, we have a component of the population that's elderly and getting elderly. Every community is getting older."

Still, what sets the project apart is the 34 skilled nursing units.

In 2008, Anoka County's two hospitals, Mercy and Unity, helped 3,638 families find short-term rehabilitation or long-term care. Of those, 63 percent were placed outside of the county. Some placements were closer to the patients' homes, but others reflected a shortage of resources in the county, said Brenda Verbick, director of social work services for Mercy Hospital.

Many have found places in Minneapolis or Elk River, but there's a critical need for short- and long-term care in the east and north of the county, Verbick said. Distance, she added, could have an impact on their health outcomes.

"If they're close to their informal support systems, which tend to be their immediate community in which they live, they tend to do better," she said.

Walker Methodist already owns or manages more than 1,200 senior housing units in Minnesota and Iowa. It is in the final phases of Highview Hills, a $33 million, 153-unit project in Lakeville, another collaboration with Welsh Companies.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409