Ooltewah's Morning Pointe adds new centers

Morning Pointe Senior Living and Independent Healthcare Properties is developing two new senior care communities in Lexington, Ky.

Photo by Contributed Photo /Chattanooga Times Free Press.

An Ooltewah development company that already has built senior care centers in five states over the past decade and a half is adding new facilities this year near Knoxville and in Lexington, Ky.

Morning Pointe Senior Living and Independent Healthcare Properties will build an assisted living center and a 44-unit Alzheimer's memory care community center in Lexington and a 73-unit apartment complex for Alzheimer's care and seniors in Powell, Tenn., near Knoxville.

Greg Vital, president and founder of Independent Healthcare Properties LLC, said the new centers are part of his company's expansion plans to add two to three new facilities a year in its five-state region.

"We like the I-75 and I-65 corridors," Vital said. "We're firm believers that good quality health care is delivered better on a regional level where you can better know your customer, their families and the culture of a community."

In Powell, an assisted living and Alzheimer's memory care community are planned adjacent to the North Knoxville Medical Center near Interstate 75. The two Lexington facilities represent an $18 million investment near St. Joseph's Hospital.

Most of the communities targetted for new centers by Independent HealthCare Properties are in areas where seniors already are relocating to after retirement, such as the Morning Pointe facilities in Collegedale. The centers appeal to both local and relocating seniors, Vital said.

"These are growth areas with large populations of older folks who continue to age and demographically need our services in those communities," he said.

Independent Healthcare Properties, which began in 1996, develops, owns and manages 20 Morning Pointe Senior Care and The Lantern Alzheimer's Memory Care Center of Excellence communities.