Maplewood Senior Living partners with hospital on $100 million hybrid facility

Maplewood Senior Living is teaming up with Norwalk Hospital and its parent organization, the Western Connecticut Health Network, to construct a five-story building in Norwalk, CT, that will contain an assisted living community, medical offices, a health center and a fitness center, the Fairfield Business Journal reports.

The $100 million edifice will be almost 250,000 square feet in size, 72,000 of which will house the assisted living component. The building is scheduled to open in 2021, according to the publication. The property,  a few blocks from Norwalk Hospital, is the former location of a YMCA and has been owned by the hospital since 2012, according to The Hour.

“Healthcare is moving into a space where you are going to see many interesting partnerships between different kinds of health entities,” Norwalk Hospital President and WCHN Chief Strategy Officer Michael Daglio told The Hour.

One example of such “interesting partnerships” is real estate investment trust Welltower’s new joint venture with ProMedica Health System, via which they control more than 200 HCR ManorCare assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing facilities. On the REIT’s second-quarter earnings call in late July, Welltower CEO Tom DeRosa said that assisted living and memory care “may become more consequential” in the healthcare system.

Maplewood Senior Living founder, President and CEO Greg Smith already had ties to the Western Connecticut Health Network, having served as a member of its foundation and Strategic Planning Committee, which is responsible for planning related to Norwalk Hospital and two sister hospitals. In December, the network announced that Smith had established the Andrew Cruz Endowed Chair in Palliative Care in memory of his cousin, who died of colon cancer in his 20s, with a seven-figure donation.

Chris Smith, Greg Smith’s brother, is the founder and CEO of Maplewood Healthcare, a medical office and healthcare developer, as well as the founder and CEO of Allegiance Realty Corp., a private real estate investment company, according to Maplewood Healthcare’s website.

“There’s going to be a lot of intergenerational activity,” Chris Smith told The Hour, speaking of the Maplewood Senior Living-Norwalk Hospital building. “Our challenge … is to create an environment that is synergistic and not ‘siloed.’ ”

Westport, CT-based Maplewood has 14 communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ohio, with a total of two additional communities planned for New Jersey and New York.

The Norwalk building will not be Maplewood Senior Living’s first high-rise. The company, with Omega Healthcare Investors, is developing Inspir Carnegie Hill, its first community in Manhattan, which is expected to open in the second half of 2019. Nor will it be Maplewood Senior Living’s first building on or next to a hospital campus, Chris Smith told The Hour, although a combination facility is new for Maplewood.