Senior Facility Proposed at LCD/Wardlow

Instead of a long-vacant lot behind the recently closed Ralphs on Los Coyotes Diagonal just south of Wardlow Rd., how about a new two-story building to house a senior assisted living and memory care facility?

The operator of a nationwide chain of such facilities, Sunrise Senior Living, has submitted a pre-application to the City of Long Beach seeking feedback on a proposal to build a new two-story, 85 unit (108 beds) facility with 52 at-grade parking stalls and common open space areas at 3340 Los Coyotes Diagonal.

Sunrise Senior Living, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, operates facilities in Seal Beach, La Palma, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Palos Verdes, Placentia, Hermosa Beach, Yorba Linda, Tustin, Playa Vista, San Marino, Culver City, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica among other locations. The company website says it has 268 Senior Living Communities in the US, 46 in the UK and 15 in Canada.

Sunrise’s website says it offers assisted living, personal care, independent living, Alzheimer’s and memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitative care and short-term stays.

The 3340 Los Coyotes Diagonal site is zoned “institutional,” which allows senior assisted/memory care facilities subject to a conditional use permit (CUP), which may place conditions on a project after a public hearing by the city’s mayor chosen/council approved planning commission. Other types of allowed institutional uses include private schools and medical office complexes or hospitals.

Sunrise scheduled a June 2 Zoom meeting to discuss its proposal, but it collided with the Beachcomber’s print deadline. The author reached out to Sunrise’s HQ seeking information about its proposal prior to the Zoom meeting but received no response. The Beachcomber has updated this story with information from the Sunrise Zoom meeting on our website at www.beachcomber.news.

The 3340 LCD site was once a now-demolished hospital, known as Woodruff Gables. LBCC ultimately acquired it and it has remained vacant, moving in and out of escrow to more than one potential buyer.

As recently as March 24, 2021 the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees agenda included a “Conference with Real Property Negotiators” regarding “3320 and 3340 Los Coyotes Diagonal and 3325 Palo Verde Avenue” and a potential buyer – “Los Coyotes Redevelopment, LLC“– for the purpose giving instructions to LBCC’s negotiators “concerning price and terms of payment for the sale of the property.”

Following the closed session, the board announced that it voted 5-0 with none abstaining “to approve the buyer’s request to amend the purchase and sale agreement to extend the close of escrow until the earlier of: (1) buyer obtains financing; (2) 45 days after obtaining long-term leases from Radnet and/or WS Property Group or any other entities; or (3) June 30, 2021.

“In addition, buyer shall pay the district $30,000 which shall be in addition to the purchase price and shall be non-refundable and immediately released to the district.”

It’s unclear if Sunrise’s pre-application and the LBCC agendized item are independent or related, which may become clear in the June 2 Zoom meeting.

Bill Pearl is the publisher of lbreport.com, an online, local news source since August 2000.