A 50-bed assisted living facility will be built at 6849 Mountain View Road, off Interstate 75 in Ooltewah just north of Exit 11, pending approval of the project by city planners.
Wendy Roberts, owner of the property, said a local physician is interested in building an assisted living facility at the location, on a 7.5-acre property currently owned by Roberts and her husband, Dr. Matthew Roberts, an obstetrician with Associates in Women’s Health.
Roberts said the sale of the property hinges on whether planning commissioners on Monday agree to rezone it from M-2 wholesale and light industrial to R-3 multi-family residential, a necessary change in order to allow for the construction of an assisted living facility.
In planning documents, Regional Planning Agency staff recommends approval for the rezoning, citing nearby properties that are already home to medical facilities, including Front Porch Pediatrics and Associates in Women’s Health.
Wendy Roberts said the property wasn’t on the market when she was approached about selling it, and that at first she was hesitant to come around to the construction of an assisted living facility there.
But after hearing out the plan, and considering the facility would mean that prenatal to post-retirement care would all be available so close together, Roberts agreed to sell.
“This whole complex could literally be all medical,” she said. “We really could tout ourselves from conception to post-retirement years.”
According to planning agency documents, the assisted living facility’s developer wants to put up a one-story, 24,000-square-foot facility on just over 2.5 acres of the available 7.5-acre property.
G.K. Madan, the ReMax Realtor helping broker the deal, said the assisted living facility is intended to offer mid-range prices. And if planners give the rezoning a green light on Monday, he said construction could start in 90 to 150 days, with an estimated six- to eight-month build- out.
Because the only zoning on the books allowing for assisted living (R-3) also allows for a multitude of potential uses, planners recommended that if the Mountain View Road property is rezoned, planning commissioners should stipulate that the property only be allowed for assisted living use.
Planning commissioners will hear the case at Monday’s regularly scheduled 1 p.m. meeting on the fourth floor of the county courthouse.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.