Big expansion planned for The Moorings in Arlington Heights

The Moorings in Arlington Heights is planning a more than $70 million expansion that will include a new assisted-living building, a building specially suited for memory-care patients and a fellowship hall at its nearly 42-acre retirement community off Central Road.

Officials from Presbyterian Homes, which has owned The Moorings since 2000, will be in front of the Arlington Heights village board on Monday to get approval for several parking and zoning variations. The project has been recommended by the village plan commission.

The first phase of the two-year project would be to build a four-story assisted living building, said Bob Werdan, vice president of marketing and public relations for Presbyterian Homes.

The building on site now - built in the 1950s - has about 45 units that are mostly studio apartments, while the new building would have 70 units that are mostly one-bedroom, larger spaces, he said.

If the company receives approval on Monday, Werdan said, construction could start next spring.

Once residents move into the new building in about 14 months, the old one would be torn down and a fellowship hall and memory care building would go up in its place, Werdan said.

The fellowship hall would hold worship services and multipurpose activities for residents. It would be built with donated funds from Presbyterian Homes' foundation.

"It provides a true chapel and sanctuary experience for the residents," Werdan said.

The memory care building would be one-story, with a basement, and have 20 individual suites dedicated primarily to patients with Alzheimer's and dementia. Currently those patients are housed with other skilled nursing residents, but Werdan said the building would give them their own area in a more "homelike" environment.

More than 450 people live at The Moorings in a mix of independent living villas, assisted living units and skilled nursing rooms.

"We want to make sure by investing this money and rebuilding some of the component that it remains a showpiece and place of pride for Arlington Heights and our residents," Werdan said. "Our residents deserve it. They are great folks and they are like family to us."