Path cleared for Ashton assisted living center

Facility should open in September ‘12

Courtesy Photo

Fifteen people have already put their names on a waiting list for a new Luling assisted living facility that will have 60 units.

Construction will finally begin this September on an assisted living center that has been in the works for seven years.

The center will be built in Luling’s Ashton Plantation on six acres of land owned by St. Charles Parish Hospital. D.C. Schonberg and Associates of New Orleans will build and run the facility.

Stuart Coleman, operations manager with Schonberg and Associates, said that everything is on track to break ground in early September of this year and that there have been no changes to the original plans that were designed in 2009.

“I think it’s a great thing for St. Charles Parish and will enhance the community,” Coleman said. “It’s a very exciting project.”

Coleman said that the facility should open around September of 2012 if everything goes as planned.

“I think it’s going to be one of the nicest assisted living facilities in the state,” David Schonberg, owner of Schonberg and Associates, said. “We’ve been really well received by the parish and there is lots of community interest. The hospital has been a huge, huge help in this whole process.”

The center will have about 60 units and construction should cost between $8 million and $10 million.

Fred Martinez, CEO of the hospital, said that the assisted living center has generated  more interest than any of the other projects the hospital has in the works now.

“Everywhere I go people ask me about the center and want to know how soon it will open,” Martinez said. “Once we break ground I think there will be a lot of excitement. I don’t think we’ll have a problem filling the facility.”

In addition to new people moving to the facility from their homes, Martinez said he thinks people will transfer to the local facility from centers in other parishes.

So far, about 15 people are on the waiting list to live at the assisted living facility. Those wanting to add their name or the name of a family member to the waiting list can do so by calling Caroline Slaton at (985)785-3644.

In 2002, the parish decided to include an assisted living facility in plans for improving the area’s health sector. The facility is meant to house elderly residents who aren’t quite ready for nursing homes but still need care.

The hospital was originally going to build the facility themselves on the $1 million piece of land, but financing fell through before the project could begin.

The location was selected because it is near the interstate and only six blocks away from the hospital.

Editor Jonathan Menard contributed to this report.