santa fe senior housing project clears hurdle

Several years in the making, a plan to build a new 68-unit senior housing complex in Santa Fe has received the important approval of the city’s Historic Districts Review Board.

To be located on a 2.5-acre site at 401 Old Taos Highway, the project will see the construction of a walkable community that will include more than 200,000 square feet of building space housing offices, a fitness and wellness room, and lobby. The site will also feature two outdoor courtyards.

The scope of the project has been somewhat reduced from its earliest inception calling for the construction of 73 units.

Plans for the site also specify the construction of an underground parking garage with space enough for 16 vehicles.
The complex will be owned and operated by El Castillo, a popular senior living community opened in 1971 and located in downtown Santa Fe at 250 E. Alameda Street.

El Castillo purchased the property, which once served as a community for retired Presbyterian missionaries and pastors, for around $4.2 million last year.

The site was also for decades famous as the home of painting legend Georgia O’Keefe and was the site of the Ghost Ranch Conference Center.

Being handled by the Santa Fe development management firm of Jenkins Gavin, the next step for the roughly $39 million project is a City of Santa Fe Planning Commission review.
Construction on the project could launch sometime next year.

By Garry Boulard