MCKINNEY, TX-A joint venture partnership formed by McFarlin Group and The Cirrus Group has broken ground on a $14-million seniors housing development called Orchard Park.

Situated on seven acres at 3392 Medical Center Dr., the community will consist of 67 apartment-style assisted living residences and 30 memory care units for residents with Alzheimer's and dementia. Orchard Park is located less than a mile from Methodist McKinney Hospital and close to multifamily communities and shopping centers, according to according to Dustin Pridmore, principal of McFarlin Group.

“The site receives good traffic and visibility and is in the middle of a large senior population, as well as a large number of adult children who often want to move their parents closer to them,” Pridmore says.

Pridmore tells GlobeSt. that Orchard Park is the first project the two firms have done together. It also represents their foray into seniors housing communities that feature assisted living and memory care elements. Both firms have equity in the project, and the majority of the equity was raised through a private placement memorandum of family and friends, rather than institutionally-sourced capital.

The partnership obtained the $10.5-million construction financing from the HUD 232 program. The construction loan automatically converts to 40-year, fixed-rate non-recourse loan.

Designed by Frisbie Architects of River Falls, WI, Orchard Park will consist of a mix of studio, one and two-bedroom units in a three-story building, which will house the assisted living units, and a single-story building, which will house the memory care units. The assisted living units will range from 400 square feet to 950 square feet and the memory care units are all 250-square foot studios.

Additionally, all assisted living units will feature full kitchens and washing machines and dryers – some of the same conveniences residents had in their previous homes. “Most assisted living communities only have a microwave and refrigerator,” Pridmore notes. “We wanted to give our residents more autonomy and get away from the institutional-feel that these communities have.”

Orchard Park will feature a full-service dining room offering three meals daily, as well as common areas for various activities.

The partnership has tapped Good Neighbor Care to handle Orchard Park’s daily operations. The firm is the nation’s 17th largest operator of assisted living with over 50 similar senior living properties under management across the U.S. and 1,700 employees.

Orchard Park will welcome its first residents in spring 2011. The owners will start marketing the property about four to six months prior to opening, Pridmore says. Assisted living units will lease for $2,500 to $4,000 per month, and memory care units will lease for $4,400 to $4,600 per month.