DEVELOPMENT: West Seattle’s second Aegis Living project set to go to Southwest Design Review Board

(Preferred ‘massing’ – size and shape – for project, from draft design packet)

With far fewer major projects in the pipeline these days, the Southwest Design Review Board‘s meetings are few and far between – just three this year. The first meeting for next year has just been scheduled. The board will get an “early design guidance” look at what will be Aegis Living‘s second West Seattle senior-living complex on January 19th. We first told you in July about this new plan for the long-vacant, often-vandalized ex-strip-mall and ex-restaurant properties in the 5200 block of California SW, formerly proposed for townhouses. The project will go to the board with the address 5252 California SW. The project file includes this description given to people living near the site during a September-October outreach period:

A six-story*, 100 sft building, offering 100+ assisted living and memory care apartments.

The ground level will include a variety of amenities and gathering spaces for residents and visitors such as a grand living room, activity room, dining, a movie theater, retail and more.

The second floor will include 45+ parking spaces for visitors and staff.

Floors 3-6 will include residential apartments for assisted living and memory care. The sixth floor will also host a sky lounge for residents to enjoy.

This West Seattle community will be built to meet the rigorous standards of the Living Building Challenge Petal Certification through the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). The Living Building Challenge defines itself as the world’s most ambitious and advanced performance standard for green, resilient, and healthy buildings.

*A sixth level will be granted as part of participation in the Living Building Challenge and meeting the sustainable design criteria set forth.

Aegis says it’s already developed one project to Living Building Challenge standards, in Lake Union. (In West Seattle, the PCC Community Markets [WSB sponsor] rebuild was also an LBC project.) Also, when we last asked Aegis about the plan, we were told that “existing street trees would be preserved.” You can see the draft design packet here – remember that the “early design guidance” phase focuses on the size and shape of the building, so this (and the image atop this story) is not the fully detailed proposal. Find out more at the 5 pm meeting on Thursday, January 19th, which will be online (watch this page for the link).

JANUARY 1 UPDATE: The meeting’s been moved to 7 pm February 2nd.

Neighbor December 20, 2022 (8:01 pm)

Aegis builds beautiful facilities, but through research one discovers we must be extremely wealthy to afford this kind of care and environment. There seems to be such an empty gap between places like this and nursing homes or facilities that accept Medicaid.

Flo B December 20, 2022 (8:54 pm)

Amen neighbor. 6 years ago my mom needed to go in a WS nursing home. Blessedly it was only for 1 month before she passed. Her shared room was $8,400 a month. She could have had a private room for $12,000 a month. What did she get? 3 meals a day brought to her room and help getting in and out of her wheelchair. The help got paid minimum wage. Don’t believe people really pay attention to how expensive these places are. And, believe me they are very firm on getting paid or the resident/patient has to find another place.
- Anectdotal? December 21, 2022 (8:33 am)
  
  Pricing For Aegis Living West Seattle
  
  Pricing ranges from$5,280 – $6,690/month
  - neighbor December 21, 2022 (12:37 pm)
    
    Anectdotal: That’s just a base price to get you interested in a tour. The actual monthly costs far exceeds their base line. Add in meals, medications, cleaning, and any other services a person needs, most people in there pay well over 10,000.00 per month. I’m not guessing, I know.
- Ditto December 21, 2022 (8:39 am)
  
  I hear you Flo….. The same with my mom. She was at the Admiral Aegis for 4 months. She had her own room. The price started at $9,000/month. As she declined it reach $13,500/month.
Caretaker December 21, 2022 (3:06 pm)

As someone who used to work at Aegis in West Seattle as a caretaker, I can assure you the money spent to house your family member doesn’t trickle down to the workers. I struggled with my own living expenses working there. There also aren’t enough caretakers to go around. We were always shorthanded and stretched to our very limits. I miss the residents, but I can’t say I miss the job.

nwpolitico December 20, 2022 (9:07 pm)

It would be nice if the property owner was required to tear down the existing structure during design review so it doesn’t continue to be a nuisance until construction starts.

Mj December 20, 2022 (10:37 pm)

Flo B – Assisted Living facilities are far cheaper than a Nursing Home. I know my mom started at an assisted care and as she declined was forced to move to an adult care facility that was over twice as expensive.

Excited for Aegis development across from WS Nursery December 21, 2022 (8:36 am)

Excited to see site developed and Aegis Living Building Challenge as a potential addition to the neighborhood. I live just west of the site. While likely not part of “size and shape” review, ingress, egress, and pedestrian safety nearby are important. A related hope is that they can address traffic and parking at the corner of Brandon and California which is a mess of an intersection. Love the Nursery and Box Bar, yet the narrowness of Brandon St on Westside of California is a huge problem, especially when people (some patrons of businesses) do not follow parking laws related to setbacks from corner, etc. This is a great opportunity to make this particular part of the neighborhood and the intersection of California and Brandon more vibrant, safe, and pedestrian friendly.

Petra December 21, 2022 (12:18 pm)

The assisted living industry is very lucrative. They care for medically complex older individuals with poor staffing ratios. The state of Washington does not require staffing ratios in assisted living. That is one important reason why there is a high rate of avoidable emergency room utilization in this population. They charge so much money and the residents get substandard care. Why does this company plan to open another facility when they have a very high staff turnover and short staffing? Well, 911 calls are frequent in these communities and I wonder who pays for that?

JTinWS December 21, 2022 (12:33 pm)

Does anyone know what “100 sft” means in the opening description? It saysA six-story*, 100 sft building, offering 100+ assisted living and memory care apartments

WSB December 21, 2022 (1:41 pm)

My apologies for passing through something I can’t explain either. Will ask.
- JTinWS December 21, 2022 (1:47 pm)
  
  No need to apologize! I think it must have been a typo but I’m just mystified for what they meant to say.
- sam-c December 21, 2022 (1:48 pm)
  
  I would assume sft is square feet, but the number is missing a few zeros? The design package lists 103,926 gross square feet excluding parking garage and ramp.

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