HOTEL TO BECOME VILLAGE FOR SENIORS DEVELOPMENT TO CATER TO THEIR NEEDS.

Byline: JIM SKEEN

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Scott Ehrlich is convinced his latest downtown project will be an eye-popper.

Ehrlich, a partner in Encino-based InSite Development, is overseeing the conversion of the Essex House Hotel and Convention Center into an Italian village-themed senior housing complex. The project, Ehrlich says, will be beautiful in its design and cutting-edge in how it treats senior citizens.

"People haven't gotten the 'aha' of this," Ehrlich said. "I'm convinced we're going to change the way we deal with our seniors."

The Essex House, a premier hotel and community meeting spot for years, was acquired last year by InSite. Fearing that new ownership would allow the hotel to fade, InSite acquired the property to protect its investments in Lancaster's downtown, an investment that includes six other projects.

"We bought it without knowing what we're going to do with it," Ehrlich said. "We have a clean slate."

After some internal discussion with InSite staff, Ehrlich said they hit on the idea of a senior village.

"It will be a village to provide everything for a senior to live -- food, services and shopping," Ehrlich said. "We want to provide the things seniors need so they don't have to drive around."

Assisted-living facilities can cost as much as $5,000 a month for a senior. Ehrlich wants to keep the cost to $1,000 a month.

InSite is working with Partners in Care Foundation, a nonprofit health organization that will provide residents with 20 hours a week of in-home care.

InSite is still tinkering with layouts and furnishings for the 234 units to find the best "senior-friendly" setup.

Designers are looking at larger bathrooms, complete with grab bars around the toilets and seats in showers; non-slip flooring; storage, including drawers under beds; and remote controls and calculators with huge buttons that would be easier to read and manipulate.

The project involves turning the hotel's Nina's restaurant into a senior-only restaurant to serve downtown residents and turning the former Le Club Sportif gym into an adult day-care center capable of handling up to 120 people.

The hotel's existing pub will become a seniors' pub, Ehrlich said.

"Instead of being 21 to get in, you'll have to be over 55 to get in," Ehrlich said.

The convention center will have retail and service shops. InSite is looking at the idea of putting in a 100-seat theater.

Ehrlich is convinced the city's downtown will become a vibrant community gathering spot.

"This downtown is going to become something amazing," Ehrlich said. "In the next 24 months, downtown will be a place to walk and shop."

Ehrlich and InSite's interest in Lancaster dates back to the early 1990s, when a 200-unit apartment complex became available at well below market value. InSite has since acquired or built 1,000 units in the city.

Ehrlich's work in, and enthusiasm for, downtown was one of the reasons Lancaster officials chose him to spotlight the city's economic development efforts at the recent Antelope Valley Board of Trade Business Outlook Conference.

"Scott brings passion," Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns said. "He is absolutely passionate about what he's doing. He's doing a great job downtown."

Among InSite's Lancaster projects is a $21million project combining a building for mental health programs and a 100-unit apartment complex. InSite partnered with the Mental Health Association and the city to build the project, which supporters say will improve downtown while making it easier to provide services.

The 20,000-square-foot office building and neighboring apartment complex is being built at Sierra Highway and Jackman Street and should be finished late this year.

The mental health building will replace a 7,700-square-foot leased building on Division Street that has become too cramped.

The project fits in with city goals of making service providers, such as the Mental Health Association, more accessible, said Brian Ludicke, Lancaster's director of community development.

"The Mental Health Association couldn't raise funds to do the project on their own. He stepped in and figured out a way to do that with a housing project of his own," Ludicke said.

InSite's Arbor Grove project at 10th Street West and Jackman Street, just north of the Essex, is being called Lancaster's first mixed-use development, offering 150 housing units along with 10,000 square feet of retail space.

"All of that is a positive thing and furthers our efforts for downtown," Ludicke said.

InSite's other projects downtown include the completed 116-unit Arbor Gardens senior housing project at Kettering Street and Elm Avenue and a 93-unit project in development at Sierra Highway and AvenueI.

The company also has acquired a pair of sites along Lancaster Boulevard near Sierra Highway.

Ideas for those sites have not been fleshed out yet, but one possibility is an artist colony.

james.skeen@dailynews

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Scott Ehrlich, a partner in Encino-based InSite Development, is overseeing the conversion of Essex House Hotel and Convention Center into an Italian village-themed senior housing complex in downtown Lancaster.

(2) Essex House Hotel project manager Corey Heimlich, left, and Scott Ehrlich, a developer, look over one of the rooms in the hotel that has been converted for the senior village.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer