From: Caribbean Business

Local development firm Puerto Nuevo S.E., doing business as Casa Pacífica, will begin construction of a $60 million complex for seniors on a 3.25-cuerda lot just off De Diego and Américo Miranda Avenues in Puerto Nuevo.

According to Puerto Nuevo S.E. Chairman Julio Vizcarrondo, Casa Pacífica will begin construction in late summer. Once completed in 2011, it will become the first full-service skilled senior-living facility in Puerto Rico to offer three living options—assisted living, continued care and an exclusive area for dementia/Alzheimer’s patients with specific skilled caregiver requirements.

The complex will be divided into three separate but interconnected sections, each one providing all the level of care required according to residents’ needs. The ground level of the complex will house a convenience store, barber shop, multiuse room, chapel, mail room, computer room, and gymnasium/therapy areas, as well as other concessions.

An eight-story tower will house the assisted-living complex with 178 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with kitchenettes distributed among seven stories. Each floor will have an observation station staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A five-story tower will house three floors with 78 apartments for continued care, each floor with a nurse’s station staffed 24 hours, seven days a week. The second floor will include on-site doctor’s offices for residents’ own physicians, examination rooms, formal and informal dining areas, as well as a private dining area for family gatherings.

The third area of the complex will house 25 positions for specific-skilled caregiver requirements for dementia/Alzheimer’s patients.

Prices of the units start at around $200,000 and 95% of the purchase price is returned to a resident’s heir once he or she departs, indicated Vizcarrondo.