Jennings is welcoming a new 44-unit multi-family housing development into the city’s disinvested 4th Ward. On Thursday, October 22, the city celebrated the groundbreaking on Senior Transitional Accommodations & Recreation (STAR) Residences.
Developer Lewis McKinney, certified Minority Business Enterprise developer, began the venture in 2009. “This coincided with the desire to care for my own grandmother and parents,” McKinney said at the ceremony.
“I began to create a quality continuum-of-care campus in the Jennings community where seniors could live in quality housing with access to support services and age with dignity while living independently without leaving their own community,” said McKinney.
McKinney said STAR Residences works with programs to help bring wellness in nutrition, transportation services, and accessibility to healthcare to help seniors remain or become more independent.
“In doing this, I realized that continuum care also needed residential housing. So I began with my phase-two development,” McKinney told The American.
The new development will have three stories and include space for recreation and wellness activities, a library, fitness center, computer facilities and family room. The housing units will be approximately 850 square feet and include two bedrooms and one bathroom. The expected rent cost will start at $500-$520.
The project was supported by the City of Jennings, St. Louis County, and the Missouri Housing Development Center (MHDC). McKinney’s corporation, LMAC Holdings LLC, was recently awarded $1.2 million in low-income housing tax credits from the Missouri Housing Development Center.
McKinney acquired the Ecclesia of Christ Church campus in 2009, and has invested thousands of dollars into the property. It currently houses STAR Residences Adult Day Care Facility. McKinney said the North County community lacks facilities for senior citizens to attend during the day.
“God has blessed me with the opportunity to give back to my community,” McKinney, a SLU basketball Hall-of-Famer, told The American.
Construction on the new development will launch in early November and completion is set for May 2016.
This story is published as part of a partnership between the St. Louis American and the Huffington Post.
