Rancho Cordova’s largest infill project kicks off today when construction kicks off on a 128-bed assisted living center near Zinfandel Drive and Sunrise Boulevard.
Summerset Assisted Living and Memory Care Facility, when completed in fall 2013, will help meet one of the city of Rancho Cordova's 2003 incorporation goals -- accommodating aging residents, said Curt Haven, director of economic development and neighborhood services.
The $18 million, 80,000-square-foot facility, developed by Neil Huettenhain of Rescue, is expected to generate up to 150 full-time and construction jobs.
“We have limited senior housing choices,” said Haven. “The goal was to bring a project like this to Rancho Cordova.”
These kinds of developments have become harder to finance with the loss of redevelopment programs in California, but the developer of Summerset tapped into the little-known EB-5 visa program, which allows foreign investors who put at least $500,000 into job-generating programs in areas of high unemployment to get special visas. If the project is successful at generating jobs, the investors gain residency in the United States.
In most cases, the visas are used to send family members to colleges in the United States, said Chad Barron, director of investments at United States Employment Director Lending Co., or USEDLC, in Long Beach. Barron put together the financing package for the Rancho Cordova project, which combined EB-5 and Small Business Administration funding.
Barron is looking for more projects to fund in so-called “targeted employment areas” in Central and Northern California. In addition to the Rancho Cordova facility, USEDLC is financing assisted living, manufacturing and other types of development in Oroville, Chico, and Redding, and is exploring opportunities in Fresno and other places in California.
Summerset is the most recent in a string of projects proposed in Rancho Cordova. Others include a proposed $40 million veterans village at the former Mather Air Force Base, and Horizons at New Rancho, a planned senior citizens apartment complex.
City officials also are discussing helping finance a $28 million entertainment complex that would feature eight movie theaters, 24 bowling lanes, laser tag, a ropes course, video arcades, a themed restaurant and other amusement activities.
The Summerset ground breaking ceremony is at noon today.