APPLE VALLEY, MN-Oxford Funds has hired Gdcre Inc. to find a partner on a $46.5 million seniors housing development. The 217-unit Cobblestone Senior Campus housing project is planned to be built in the 300-acre Cobblestone Lake community.  

Oxford expects to break ground this summer, with a September 2012 opening. The facility will have a special focus on health and wellness for active seniors, with a fitness center on the premises, while also providing care via assisted living and memory care house options.

Gina Dingman, president of Gdcre, tells GlobeSt.com that Oxford Funds has other current projects and decided it wanted a partner to help pay Cobblestone’s costs. She says she has had a good interest so far. “There are a number of investors looking at multifamily, it seems the safest choice in commercial real estate today, and seniors housing is included in that. Oxford is a good manager with a healthy track record of returns,” she says.

Most of the homes within the 2,250-unit Cobblestone Lake site are already occupied, Dingman says. The development, about 20 miles south of the Twin Cities, also includes a retail center anchored by a Super Target, as well as a 36-acre lake and miles of recreation trails and sidewalks.