Evergreen breaks ground on 360 affordable senior-living units

The three Ohio groundbreakings Evergreen Real Estate Group announced Aug. 31, first reported by Connect CRE, are one bet spread across two metro markets. Green Oaks of Fairborn will rise at 2124 Exchange Court, about 15 miles east of downtown Dayton; Green Oaks of Grove City at 3000 Holt Road, roughly 10 miles south of Columbus; and Green Oaks of Walnut Creek at 4000 Westerville Road in Columbus. Each building runs three or four stories and holds 120 units — 67 studios and 53 one-bedroom apartments for seniors across a range of income levels. WJW Architects designed the projects, The Douglas Company is the general contractor, and Gardant Management Solutions will operate each licensed residential care facility.

The pipeline totals 360 units — 201 studios and 159 one-bedrooms — a scale more typical of market-rate apartment development than affordable senior housing. The studio-heavy mix keeps per-door costs at a level where an affordable product can work, but the care license is what actually sets the price: these are residential care facilities, not age-restricted apartments. Gardant’s operating contract carries the revenue stream, shifting the income statement from a rent-roll question to a services question. The three locations also fall under a single state regulatory regime, simplifying what is often the hardest part of an assisted living project — the license.

The risk in that bet is concentration: Fairborn, Grove City, and Walnut Creek will all draw from the same Ohio senior demographic in overlapping time frames, and three identical buildings have to lease up without stealing one another’s demand. A care-license model can fill beds by selling services rather than square footage, which is the argument for making three starts at once, but the same logic cuts the other way — if the services pitch does not resonate, the developer is left with three identical assets chasing the same referrals.

The groundbreakings are a statement of conviction; the test comes when the buildings stabilize. The pairing is a developer and an operator committing to a niche product type in two midwestern metros at once, a bet on the demand curve for affordable assisted living with Ohio as the data point. If the care license proves its value in lease-up, these three buildings become a reference point for sponsors looking to do the same thing in similar markets; if it does not, they become a cautionary tale about building ahead of the referral base.