A ceremonial groundbreaking in Milford Township was the icing on the cake for Roger Hiser, even as heavy earth-movers had begun site preparation for The Village at LifeQuest construction project years in the making.
No cost estimate for the project was disclosed.
“I appreciate the difficulties of senior housing and this is a timely project,” said Republican state Sen. Bob Mensch.
During the past 15 years, Hiser, who is president and CEO of LifeQuest Nursing Center, and developer Del Markward of Caracor LLC in Upper Macungie Township worked with Milford Township officials to create a zoning overlay which would allow the 216-acre Milford Village development.
The Village at LifeQuest is Phase I of Milford Village, the massive multi-use development on Route 663 and bounded by Mill Hill and Portzer roads. Milford Village reroutes Mill Hill Road and will include independent and assisted living facilities, a dementia/memory care unit, apartments and housing, as well as retail shops and restaurants.
“After 15 years, this is finally happening and it feels very real,” Markward said.
Hiser said he expects The Village at LifeQuest to be complete in spring 2019 creating as many as 100 new jobs.
Dennis Pfleiger, chief operating officer of St. Luke’s University Health Network Quakertown Hospital, praised the LifeQuest project.
“With a new hospital opening in 2019 …our future neighbors at LifeQuest have taken the initiative to offer these services to the community,” Pfeiger said.
The new 132,000-square-foot St. Luke’s-Bucks County Campus will include 80 beds, 16 emergency departments and four operating rooms, Pfeiger said.
Hiser said the two projects were basically developing in tandem, and, once complete, could create as many as 400 new jobs between them.
Zoning challenges and financial setbacks exacerbated by the real estate bubble and subsequent Great Recession helped to slow the LifeQuest project development.
