Yuppies and hipsters aren't the only people who will get to enjoy Metro Detroit's revitalizing downtowns. Senior citizens in the Birmingham area will soon get the chance to enjoy the city's downtown amenities once The Regency at Elm is finished in 2009.
"It's really the first luxury, senior living facility in the Birmingham / Bloomfield Hills area," says developer Ronald Hughes, president of Bingham Farms-based Hughes Properties.
He expects to break ground for the $25-million development in April or May of next year and finish construction by the summer of 2009. The building, located at the southeast corner of Elm Street and Maple Road, will be the first major development in Birmingham's emerging Triangle District.
That section of the city has been dominated by a more traditional suburban-style infrastructure that provides more space for vehicular activity than pedestrian. However, developers have been transforming that area into a more walkable, urban area in recent years.
The Triangle District is just east of downtown and within easy walking distance of a number of different local institutions. In fact the area’s emerging walkability was a primary reason Hughes chose the location.
"It's just fabulous with Kroger across the street and downtown down the street," he says.
The building will house 100 independent-living condos made specifically for retirees. Parking spaces under the structure will be available for its residents, along with a number of amenities, such as exercise rooms, a pub and large dinning and living rooms. About 20,000 square feet of the building's 151,000 square feet will be dedicated to this type of community space.
The condos will range in size between 830 square feet and 1,700 square feet with either one or two bedrooms. The developer is willing to work with the future residents to make bigger spaces if they so desire.
The Regency at Elm will be built on the site of the old Hamilton Funeral Home. The local institution had been in business there since the early 1940s until recently when the owner retired. That retirement allowed Hughes to come in and take advantage of Birmingham's rapidly expanding downtown market.
A sales center for the development will open up at northeast corner of Maple and Elm, overlooking the building site, in November. For information on the development, call Hughes Properties at (248) 647-2600.
Source: Ron Hughes, president of Hughes Properties
Writer: Jon Zemke
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