LifeCare Enters Tennessee With Blake-Branded Senior Community
Completion is expected in 2028.
LifeCare Development will enter Tennessee with the construction of The Blake at Chattanooga, a 118-unit luxury assisted living and memory care community. The firm intends to break ground on the project later this summer. The $45 million development will reach completion in 2028, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Partners in the project include ARRIVE Architecture, Ridgemont Commercial Construction and Banko Design. In addition, Trustmark Bank provided construction financing.
The Blake at Chattanooga will take shape at 7333 McCutcheon Road, adjacent to the Village at Waterside shopping mall. LifeCare acquired the site in May for $6.8 million, the same source shows.
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Upon delivery, the two-story community will encompass 73 assisted living apartments and 45 memory care units. Services will include dining, housekeeping and caregiver support, among others. The property is just off Interstate 75, with multiple medical centers located within a 3-mile radius.
This is LifeCare’s fifth Blake-branded senior living project with Blake Management Group. Located across Texas, three of the other four communities came online between 2021 and 2024, while the fourth is still under construction.
LifeCare recently sold The Blake at Tyler, a 115-unit luxury senior community in Tyler, Texas, to a publicly traded REIT. The property, which came online in 2024, will continue to be under Blake’s day-to-day management.
Senior construction pipeline slows down
Groundbreakings in the sector are at an all-time low, according to NIC MAP data. New construction amounted to 0.25 percent of total inventory per quarter, close to the lowest rate in this century. At the current pace, only 191,000 units are expected to come online by 2030, compared to the total of 560,000 needed to accommodate the growing demand.
High interest rates and construction costs are among the factors that keep the pipeline staggering. Additionally, major senior housing firms have prioritized buying existing communities instead of developing new ones.
