The Cranberry Township Economic Development Committee is continuing to look at options for trying to get a senior living complex in the township.
At the committee’s last meeting in March, township manager Eric Heil said a representative of Connect55+, a division of Calamar, a firm involved in developing senior housing, had told him the firm didn’t believe it could fill all the units if it built a 132-unit senior housing facility in the township.
Heil had reached out to the representative to arrange a Zoom call to discuss more about why Cranberry wasn’t chosen, but Heil said this month he hadn’t yet heard back.
Committee member Barrie Brancato said she had spoken to a Hudson representative about why Cranberry wasn’t chosen for a senior housing development, while locations in Conneaut Lake, Clarion and Cochranton had been chosen.
Brancato said the representative had said the site wasn’t central enough to places within walking distance.
However, Brancato noted the Cochranton location wasn’t central either, and also, many seniors still have cars. Residents would also be able to take a bus from the Cranberry location, and the township had talked to PennDOT about putting in sidewalks.
“And we all know how fast Cranberry is growing,” Brancato added. “So I didn’t buy that one.”
The Hudson representative also said that “legislators are key,” Brancato said. “Maybe that’s another thing we need to look at.”
Brancato had looked at the list of places that Hudson chose for senior housing developments and found the vast majority were in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia with a few in Erie, but in rural areas “they’re just not there,” she said. “And that’s not just Hudson, that’s all the developers.”
Bonnie Summers, the chair of the economic committee, said she felt many people now are looking for space in more rural areas with fresh air and recreation, which the Cranberry site has, and perhaps the township should bring that up with developers in the future.
The committee agreed that the township also needed to find out exactly what the need and population was for senior housing in the area.
Committee member Susan Williams, who is also the executive director of the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce, said Venango County does have a lack of senior-ready housing with one floor and low-maintenance property.
“I think there’s definitely a need, how much is the question,” she said. “It has to be profitable enough for the developer to come in and know there’s going to be a return on the investment.”
Committee member Judith Etzel said she thought the township should look at a private developer and move on from subsidized housing as “we’re jumping through hoops that people change constantly.”
And Heil remarked he has the township registered on an online bidding platform called PennBid where he can do requests for proposals.
He said he could post a request for a proposal for the senior housing development there and “see if anyone bites.”
