Prairie Hills Senior Services, a Fairfield-based company, plans to build an assisted living center on Des Moines’ South Side, just north of Diehl Avenue on Southeast 14th Street.

With between 180 and 200 units planned, Prairie Hills of Des Moines would be the second-largest certified assisted living center in Iowa. The facility, to be built in three phases, will incorporate assisted living, dementia care and independent living units on a 14-acre site overlooking Ewing Park.

“We originally were contacted by the city manager in Carlisle,” said Dave McGinnis, Prairie Hills’ project manager, “so we were originally looking outside the city of Des Moines. As we began researching it, we found one was needed in South Des Moines. It seemed the vast majority were up north of the river and we realized that there was really nowhere for people to take their parents.”

The proposed development fits into a recently completed revitalization plan that calls for high-density housing in that area, said Joe Henry, an agent with Iowa Realty and member of the South Side Revitalization Partnership Committee.

“It’s going to be a great buffer between some of the development going on (along Southeast 14th) and the great neighborhoods on Diehl Avenue,” Henry said.

The proposed project is spurring some redevelopment activity nearby. Anderson Properties, which owns an adjoining 4-acre parcel on Southeast 14th, plans to clean up that property and put it on the market as a retail development site, said Mark Anderson, vice president of the Urbandale development company. A former bar that had most recently been used as a flea market will be torn down, along with several garages that were part of a used-car lot just north of a recently built Tasty Tacos restaurant.

“Right now we’re just repositioning the ground, as we would put it, into usable land for either fast-food restaurants or a shopping center,” said Anderson, who hopes to have the property available for sale within 30 days. “We anticipate something along a retail use.”

Prairie Hills, which opened its first Iowa assisted living center a year ago in Tipton, has since opened a center in Independence and is completing a third in Clinton that is scheduled to open in October. Earlier this year, it broke ground for a center in Ottumwa that’s due to open in July 2007.

“We spent several years before building our first facility researching the most pleasing way to structure a facility,” McGinnis said. The buildings feature “very open architecture,” with amenities such as sitting areas with fireplaces at the end of each wing. The independent living apartments will each be equipped with full kitchens, while the assisted living units will have partial kitchens, with meal plans available for all residents. The center will have a full-time nursing staff for the assisted living units, and a separate staff for the dementia care units.

The project would be built in three phases, beginning with the assisted living center, to be followed by memory-care units and then the independent-living component. The company hopes to have the first phase completed by next fall.

McGinnis said having a location close to retail is a plus for the center, as it would make shopping readily available to its independent living clients, many of whom continue to drive.

“We will be set back into the wooded area, but have access to transportation and shopping,” he said. The company is also considering incorporating “green” design elements into the prairie-style building, including a geothermal heating and cooling system.

McGinnis said the project has received a favorable response from South Side residents he talked with at a recent neighborhood meeting. “To a person, the South Siders came up and said, ‘This is wonderful; this is what we need,'” he said. “I don’t think there’s opposition to senior housing in South Des Moines. I haven’t heard any.”

Though it’s a market-rate facility, the company plans to set aside 20 percent of the units for low-income residents, McGinnis said. Prairie Hills also has a “Good Samaritan” policy in that it will not force out residents who run out of money.

The number of assisted living centers in Iowa has increased nearly tenfold in the past five years, from 24 certified centers in fiscal year 2000 to 233 currently, according to Dave Werning, public information officer for the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which licenses the centers.

The department is currently considering applications for 33 new assisted living centers, and has approved an average of two new centers each month, Werning said. The largest certified facility in the state, the Angelus Retirement Community of Dubuque, is licensed for 274 residents, though 50 units is a more typical size.

“It’s a market-driven living accommodation, probably more so than traditional nursing facilities, because it’s contracted living with specific services [designed for elderly residents who need a limited amount of care],” he said. “For the well elderly, it’s a wonderful opportunity for them.”

The South Side center would also address a growing need for the care of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Currently, 35 centers in the state are certified to offer such care, including five in Polk County.

The project is scheduled for review by the Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission at its Sept. 7 meeting.