LRT expects to break ground during the summer of 2025. The campus will include 127 independent living units, as well as 77 assisted living and memory care units. Approximately 25 percent of the independent living units will be reserved for low-income seniors, according to a company press release.
Without enough supply, many seniors are aging in place, according to advocates. Across the country, the current pace of senior-living development is projected to lead to a 550,000-unit shortfall by 2030. That $275 billion funding gap is expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2040, according to new data from NIC MAP Vision, which tracks the senior housing and care industry.
Rhode Island has long faced an affordable housing shortage, with 24,000 affordable units needed for low-income households alone.
For 30 years, Rhode Island's Low and Moderate Income Housing Act has called for a minimum of 10 percent of the housing supply in the state's 39 communities to be classified as "affordable." Some communities have been eager to create new housing units, but others have pushed back. Only four communities have achieved that mandatory minimum.
Coventry, a suburb of Providence, is the largest municipality in Rhode Island by land size, but has a population of just 36,000. It has not met its affordable housing minimum: Only 5 percent of Coventry housing units are considered for low and moderate income households, according to the Rhode Island Housing Fact Book.
LRT's senior housing campus that is expected to be a total of 157,000 square feet and will include 56 structured parking garage spaces.
The firm purchased the property for $1.5 million from New London Turnpike Realty LLC, which is held by Stephen A. Cardi, a construction executive, according to corporate records filed with the state. The property was in foreclosure, according to town records and SJ Corio Company, a liquidation and auction firm.
"LRT Company is excited to expand into Rhode Island with our new senior housing project, which has been over three years in the making," said Lawrence LaBonte, the founder and chief executive officer of LRT, in a statement.
LaBonte founded the firm in 2019, and it now specializes in multifamily and senior living communities, and focuses on projects throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Previously to launching LRT, LaBonte focused on the redevelopment of National Historic Landmarks, and directed the redevelopment of the Schraft Candy Building in Charlestown, Mass., in 2014.
It's unclear when LRT plans to complete the project. Julie Leber, a spokeswoman for the firm, could not be immediately reached on Thursday.
Other developers have proposed similar ideas for this property over the last decade or so.
In 2010, while the property was being used as part of a commercial gravel pit, Sherwood Development LLC submitted plans to build "Tiffany Village," which would have included 192 multi-family units consisting of eight buildings with 24 dwelling units each. After two years of working with the town planning board, the developer received approval to build 168 units in seven buildings, with an eighth building to become a recreation center. That development was never built.
Fast forward to 2019, when the Coventry Planning Commission was presented another plan by Willow Lakes Properties LLC to construct an independent living community with assisted living and memory care facilities. About 25 percent of the units would have been "affordable," according documents filed with the town.