Paric Completes $84 Million Meramec Bluffs Senior Living Project

Paric Corporation has completed its fourth project for Ballwin's Meramec Bluffs retirement community, completing an eight-year, $84 million master building project in West St. Louis County.  

The continuing care retirement community now is home to more than 450 older adults.  The site's 350-member staff assists seniors in a wide array of living options, from independent living apartments and patio homes to residential care, skilled nursing and memory care.

The development is located on a 50-acre bluff-top site overlooking the Meramec River at Sulphur Spring and Vance Roads.  All residential groupings are nestled in the forested topography of the bluffs and offer panoramic views of the Meramec River valley and Castlewood State Park.   Currently, Meramec Bluffs features 223 apartments, 25 patio homes, 56 assisted living apartments, 20 memory care units and an 88-bed skilled nursing facility.  

The final $10.7 million phase of the project adds a new four-story wing which includes an additional 103,000 square feet of living space. The 13-month fourth phase of the project added an additional 46 independent living apartments and additional garage space to what is already one of the largest and most comprehensive senior living communities in metropolitan St. Louis.  Paric completed a 66,000-square-foot skilled nursing facility as part of Phase III in 2006 and 122,000 square feet of independent living apartments for Phase II in 2005.  Paric has worked with Meramec Bluffs' parent organization, Lutheran Senior Services (LSS), since 1999. 

As design-build contractor, Paric joined the project at the onset, helping LSS evaluate several campus layout options, which reduced costs on the project and offered the opportunity to re-grade the site to remain at or below a 6 percent grade to accommodate leisurely strolls throughout campus.  

"We have become invested in this community during our eight-year relationship on this project," said Paric President and CEO P. Joseph McKee.  "We are proud to have been able to contribute to a project that will enrich the lives of so many of our seniors.  It has been a privilege to work with such an outstanding, caring organization as Lutheran Senior Services."

While Lutheran Senior Services has developed 19 senior living properties in Missouri and Illinois, Meramec Bluffs is the first of their communities to use the design-build approach to construction. The project's size and the site's complexities led to this decision, said LSS's Vice President of Construction Mark W. Schoedel.

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