Merrill Gardens hosts open house Saturday at Auburn Senior Center

Published 11:07 am Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Merrill Gardens expects to start moving residents into its soon-to-be-complete senior living community off South Division Street in downtown Auburn in late October or early November.

But to give interested folks a taste of what it would be like to live there, Merrill Gardens is hosting an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the Millenium Room at the Auburn Senior Center at 808 9th St. SE.

General Manager Lynda Krill said Merrill Gardens’ team will be there to answer questions, and there’ll be floor plans to study. If people like what they see and hear, Krill said, they may place a deposit and pre-lease an apartment.

And of course, there’ll be goodies.

The leasing office at 14 S. Division St. is already open.

Teutsch Partners LLC, the Seattle-based real estate development firm that is doing the construction, describes Merrill Gardens Auburn as a 168,331-square-foot, four-story, retirement community, with 111 assisted-living units, 16 memory-care apartments and a below-grade parking level.

The three stories of memory-care units above ground will be divided between one-bedroom, one-bath studio and two-bedroom, two-bath apartments.

The U-shaped configuration is already visible from South Division. Part of the center-landscaped courtyard is to be accessible to the public. One entrance will be off First Street Southeast, the second off Second Street Southeast.

Between the Trek Apartments on East Main and the Merrill Gardens project, City officials say, there will be soon be 300-500 new residents downtown.

In 2007, the Economic Development Administration awarded the City of Auburn a $2.2 million federal grant and a $7.2 million local revitalization bond to upgrade streets, sidewalks and utilities to support such construction downtown.

Merrill Gardens is a privately-owned, family-run company that owns and operates 21 senior living communities in four states, with a focus on lifestyle. No two Merrill Gardens communities look exactly alike.