Eastmont Towers has expanded several times since it opened at 63rd and O streets in 1968.
However, with one small exception, all that expansion has taken place at its original site.
Things are about to change. Eastmont's owner, Christian Retirement Homes Inc., has a deal in place to buy 20 acres of land on the south side of Yankee Hill Road between 48th and 52nd streets, where it plans to build a 174-unit retirement community.
Carol Ernst, executive director of Eastmont Towers, said the new development will help the organization "reach out to a community we haven't served in the past" in south Lincoln.
Ernst said the new site also will allow Eastmont to offer amenities that appeal more to baby boomers, including a wellness center, walking paths and green space.
The 174 units will be built as part of a first phase on the western 15 acres of the site and will include 102 independent-living units, 48 assisted-living units, including some memory-care units and a 24-bed skilled nursing center. The independent living portion of the development also will have an underground parking garage.
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A second phase could be built at some point on the remaining five acres.
Ernst said it will be a "pay-as-you-go" project, with units being pre-sold before construction starts.
She said the organization will need deposits on at least 70 percent of the units -- approximately 126 -- before construction can begin.
"That means it's going to be a while before we actually build," Ernst said.
She estimated a best-case scenario of construction starting late in 2016, with completion in late 2017 or early 2018.
The land currently is farm ground and is outside the city limits, so the plan requires both annexation into the city and a zoning change, which will require public hearings before the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission and the City Council.
The land is surrounded mostly by acreage developments and other farm ground, and Ernst said feedback from neighbors so far has been favorable.
Unlike the Eastmont campus at 63rd and O streets, which has three six-story buildings and a four-story building in a compact configuration, the plan for the 48th and Yankee Hill Road site is to have two- and three-story buildings that spread out horizontally.
The Eastmont Towers project is one of several senior living projects that have been proposed in Lincoln recently.
According to statistics from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department, four large projects, including this one, totaling nearly 600 units have been proposed in the past six months.
In fact, on the same day Eastmont filed its plans with the Planning Department, developers also filed plans for a proposed senior living community on the western half of The Knolls golf course at 22nd Street and Old Cheney Road that would have up to 210 units.
By contrast, about 500 new senior housing units were built from 2010 to 2014, Planning Department data show.
Ernst said the need for senior housing is huge and growing, with people living longer and the baby boom generation starting to hit retirement age.
Ernst said that even with the planned expansion to south Lincoln, the organization remains committed to its campus at 63rd and O streets and has a vision for continued improvements there.
But she said she and her board members feel expansion is necessary.
"We've been around 48 years and we'd like to be around a lot longer," Ernst said. "We think this will help us."