Developer Targets Ridgewood Downtown for Senior Housing Facility

A developer has visions of constructing a 78-foot-tall assisted living facility that would bring the village retail opportunities and roughly 100 public parking spots in the heart of the Ridgewood downtown.

Kensington Senior Development presented a plan to the village council on Wednesday to build an 88-unit facility with 3,000 square feet of retail and a bi-level parking garage at the village-owned North Walnut Street parking lot off Franklin Avenue.

Should it come to fruition, the plan could ultimately answer a series of challenges for the village, yielding a more varied housing mix, public parking spaces, and scooping up much-needed tax revenue.

Once their husbands have passed and they're left with a large house all to themselves, many widows become isolated, have trouble developing relationships, and experience difficulty in taking care of themselves, Kensington founder and senior partner Harley Cook told the council.

At Kensington, they would be surrounded by nurses and doctors, provided three "tasty" meals a day, with opportunities for recreation, exercise and even a beauty parlor. Few, if any, would drive, he said, adding that the vast majority of residents would likely be from Ridgewood.

"You can make it possible for seniors to stay in Ridgewood rather than move away," Cook said. "It will bring families downtown to visit their parents, resulting in increased retail activity."

Kensington has pledged to fully remediate the environmental issues at the parking lot property while constructing a bi-level garage (at a cost of $4.5 million) that would hold 180 public parking spaces (a net gain of about 100).

To boot, the deal would provide an estimated $300,000 a year to the village with Kensington leasing the property for $1 a year and also transferring control of the garage to the town.

"We want to be where we can be seen," Cook said. "We want to be visible and we want to be downtown rather than isolated in the pastures. We want to be in the center of the action."

Residents of the village have expressed apprehension at the prospect of four apartment buildings rising in periphery of the village downtown. Concerns largely center around increased school populations, traffic and overall density.

The lack of any school children at Kensginton coupled with high tax revenue will likely be viewed favorably, as will the opportunity for aging parents to stay close to Ridgewood families. 

But Kensington's proposal will not likely assuage fears over density – the building would be six floors (first floor retail, two parking garage levels topped by three floors for residents) on a site that is less than 1/2 acre. Kensington claims construction will not increase peak traffic, though that may be debated in the months ahead.

Council members on Wednesday seemed generally receptive to the pitch.

Kensington is expected to submit a proposal to the planning board, though village officials will still have to determine how the property's status as being in a redevelopment zone would impact an application.

If the facility is ultimately approved and constructed, it would eliminate the need for the chamber of commerce plan to build a parking garage at N. Walnut St.