Pennrose Adds Seniors Housing to Health System Campus

Eastern Woods Senior Apartments isn’t your average senior community. Nestled in the heart of a Blanchard Valley Health System campus, the development is part of a larger holistic effort to deliver better access to medical care, social opportunities, and affordable, safe housing to seniors in Findlay, Ohio.

“As a health care system, they were recognizing that they were admitting and discharging seniors of lower incomes who were becoming repeat visitors to the hospital system—in part because they were returning to housing conditions that were substandard,” says Tim Henkel, president of Pennrose, which partnered with Blanchard Valley on the project.

Eastern Woods Senior eliminates those at-home hazards and offers a safe, fully equipped housing option for Findlay’s 55-plus population.

The $9.6 million development features a combination of 44 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom units—all reserved for seniors with incomes between 30% and 60% of the area median—and residents have access to a pool, a recreation area, a sports court, a theater room, a salon and barbershop, walking paths, and transportation services.

The Blanchard Valley campus the apartments sit on boasts a variety of care providers, including optometrists, rheumatologists, dentists, oncologists, and more.

As Bridget Mundy, director of residential care at Blanchard Valley, explains, “This collaboration — and the addition of affordable housing for those 55 years of age and older — allows us to continue to fulfill the mission of our organization.”

Eastern Woods Senior is fully occupied, and the development was so well received that Blanchard Valley and Pennrose have begun exploring the possibilities of a second phase.