Developer Lara Properties LLC announced this week it has begun work on a 58-unit apartment project that will repurpose a skilled nursing facility on Oddie Boulevard. The project is just one of several capitalizing on the Regional Transportation Commission’s Oddie Wells Project, a 3.2-mile-long transportation corridor improvement project.
Foothill Partners last year acquired the vacant Lowe’s Home Improvement store just west along Oddie and is redeveloping the site as The District at Oddie, a “work-live-make innovation hub” that will house The Generator, among other tenants.
Construction began in August on The Hub@Oddie, which takes the place of the former Renown Skilled Nursing facility at 1835 Oddie Blvd. It gets its name, in part, from the building’s unique shape which includes six wings off of one central hub. Developers are touting the adaptive project as an environmentally sensitive method of creating more housing options in the region.
“The repurposing of this building will reduce the environmental impact and waste of total demolition by keeping most major structural components and systems intact,” a Lara Properties spokesperson said in a statement. “This will not only result in less noise, waste and traffic disturbances, but a faster timeline and reduced overall cost.”
The developer said the pet-friendly apartments will be let at “workforce/market-rate rent,” and will be part of a community that includes a garden, courtyards, business center, on-site storage and laundry, fitness room and dog-washing facility.
The building is also planned to have a nearly 3,000-square-foot commercial kitchen, a likely holdover from the facility’s original design. Lara Properties is working with local chef and entrepreneur Mark Estee to operate the kitchen as a by-the-hour enterprise where culinary start-ups, caterers, private chefs or food truck business can rent time and kitchen storage space.
The project is planned for completion in spring 2022.
