Catonsville Y Reaches New Deal to Develop Land with Assisted Living Facility

The has reached a new deal with a different developer to build an assisted living facility on its South Rollling Road campus, after Duke Realty backed out of a proposal to construct a medical building.

The new project, which would have to go through an entirely new Planned Unit Development Process (PUD), would involve the construction of a three-story residential independent living facility operated by . The building would have 90 independent living apartments and up to 50 assisted living beds.

Brightview Senior Living is a division of the private development company, the Shelter Group. It currently has another assisted living building at 912 South Rolling Road; just south of the Catonsville Y.

The new project was announced this morning by Councilman , Y President John Hoey and Brightview Senior Development Director Andrew Teeters.

The development of the land for a medical building was from , who cited traffic concerns along the two-lane road and the potential for a medical building to further commercialize the area.

Duke Realty backed out of the plan, Hoey said, which was supposed to be in partnership with Saint Agnes Hospital.

"They were both good options," he said of developing the land as a medical building or an assisted living facility.

"It seems that this one really works best," he said.

The Y will sell the same portion of the land that it had planned to develop for the medical building, which is 5.5 acres. The facility is expected to be larger than the Brightview building on South Rolling Road and larger than the proposed medical building, but it will have far fewer parking spaces. Teeters said he expects the number of new parking spots to be 90, compared to the 270 spots proposed for the medical building.

"This will provide sufficient parking, but not provide more than we need," Hoey said. "We don't want to blacktop the whole site."

The project will also pay for to South Rolling Road, which will involve a left turn lane into the driveway for the Catonsville Y and the Brightview building.

Even with the traffic improvements, Quirk said he expects the building to draw in fewer cars, because it is residential and has a smaller parking lot.

"This will actually help improve the traffic flow for Catonsville," Quirk said.

The new project will also allow for the Y to move into a second phase of expanding its building to make the size 30,000 square feet.

Officials said that breaking ground on the building is still at least two years away, as they have to go through the PUD and permitting process.

Quirk said he thinks this is a better plan for the land and is looking forward to learning more about the development through the county PUD process.

"I am definitely encouraged by this," he said. "This is a really quality project. Brightview has done a really quality job."