Humboldt is eager to court Neighborhood Senior Living about locating a housing complex in its fair city. MEANWHILE, after learning Neighborhood Senior Living no longer had a site under contract in Iola, Larry Tucker, Humboldt city administrator, and Humboldt Mayor Nobby Davis called Scott Holder, the company’s construction manager, to lure the company on south.
The Dallas-based business is pulling up stakes from Iola.
It was to have had housing for seniors, including meals and all other living expenses for a monthly charge, and a second building to accommodate people with dementia problems.
Developers for the senior complex ran into problems with Iola when would-be neighbors complained the facility would change the nature of the neighborhood.
The last straw came when a contract between the company and Andy Armato, who owns the 3.8 acres at 1002 N. Kentucky, was let to expire earlier this month. Then, Armato negotiated a contract with another party, said Jack Franklin, the listing agent at Allen County Realty. Franklin said he thought all terms within the new agreement had been accepted by both parties, but “it hasn’t closed yet.”
That outcome apparently has Neighborhood Senior Living, owned by Jack West, Dallas, on the outside looking in, with no announced plans to pursue anything further in Iola.
As of Monday afternoon they had had no response.
“I called him and sent a text, but haven’t heard back,” Davis said of Holder.
The Register also has been unable to get an on-the-record response from Holder, or any response from West.
Tucker said Humboldt was “certainly interested,” in discussing a project there.
He mentioned two possible sites.
One is the old Pinecrest Nursing Home in the southeast part of town, which has been closed for several months. Owned by a company in Georgia, its status is unclear, Tucker said. It also is outside of Humboldt’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program zone, which was a consideration of the company in its Iola plans.
NRP designation gives a property tax break of 95 percent rebates for six years and then rebates declining by 20 percent each year after that.
Tucker said the second site was south of a completed senior living project at the north edge of Humboldt, and in the town’s NRP zone. That parcel is under control of the previous senior housing developer but will revert to the city at the end of the year if nothing occurs with it, Tucker said.
The area has been rezoned multi-family, without objection from neighbors, Tucker said, and also has all utilities nearby.
“We’d absolutely like to work with them,” Tucker reiterated.
Humboldt eyes senior complex
