A new assisted living facility has set its sights on Colonie.
Peregrine Assisted Living, based out of Syracuse, is looking to build an assisted adult home with a focus on dementia care at 5 South Family Drive in Colonie. Representatives from the Hershberg & Hershberg engineering firm described a sketch plan to the Colonie Planning Board Tuesday, March 26, for a 35,000-square-foot, one-story memory enhancement facility.
The adult home would specialize in caring for seniors with higher levels of dementia. With a small staff and 24-hour security, the focus of the facility would be to emphasize “socialization” and create a home-like setting. “The Peregrine Way,” according to the company’s website, seeks to stray “away from an institutional model and toward a more dynamic and revitalizing environment which fosters intellectual, spiritual and emotional growth.”
The proposed Colonie location would have 64 beds in 58 units, with four shared units in five separate wings. Each wing would have about 14 private bedrooms and a communal kitchen and living room. The structure is smaller but similar to the Peregrine’s Beacon Pointe Memory Care Community in Clifton Park, which houses 52 residents in two wings.
Stephen Bowman, president of the Peregrine Companies, said that 20 years ago, there were not a lot of dementia-specific buildings in the area.
“In the past 10 years, (we’ve) realized that dementia has become an epidemic. In a planning perspective, (there are) very few new dementia buildings that have gone up in the past five years in Colonie,” Bowman said.
Bowman said oftentimes a wing of an adult home will be converted into a dementia section. Proposing this new building offers a specialized and state-of-the-art dementia program for Colonie, he said.
“What’s exciting about this project is you’re a pretty densely developed town … but there hasn’t been new construction (for a) dementia-filled community. Now we have a chance with Peregrine to step back and say, ‘Let’s go to Colonie,’” Bowman said.
Bowman said coming to Colonie would also be beneficial because the company plans to work with the senior resources and integrated activities that the town offers. Peregrine Companies has many facilities in New York, including the Clifton Park location as well as facilities in Rochester and Buffalo.
The company will refine its plan and return to the Planning Board for a more thorough review.
“I think there’s a need for this. (It) looks like it’ll have a function fairly well here,” Planning Board Chairman Peter Stuto said.