Groundbreaking ceremony held for senior housing project

BY JOHN BRICE

FOR THE LAFAYETTE SUN

VALLEY — Local officials gathered with business leaders from the community at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new senior housing project near the corner of King Road and 55th Street off of Fob James Drive in Valley on Sept. 4.

The residential development, set to be named King’s Way Senior Housing, will address housing insecurities for local seniors that can no longer live in their dilapitated homes and lack resources to repair their dwellings.

This development has been a partnership between the city of Valley, the Chambers County Development Authority, real estate developer The Bennett Group of Auburn and Holland+Seals Inc. general contractors of Auburn.

Chambers County Development Authority President of the Board Bruce Emfinger said this project is worth the time involved.

“Some projects happen quickly, some projects don’t,” Emfinger said. “I know this from experience. Some projects are worth the wait. This project is worth the wait. Mr. Fred Bennett and The Bennett Group, we are proud to have you in our community. Thank you for choosing Valley, Alabama. We really appreciate you and your people and what you are going to do on this site.”

City of Valley Mayor Leonard Riley touched on the urgent need for senior housing in the area during his remarks.

“We have got a lot of seniors who need this,” Riley said. “We have got a lot of seniors who live in our community. We are kind of an older community. They are starting to live in some dilapidated houses and we tear down a lot of dilapidated houses. We are just glad to see you moving forward with this project. We are glad that it did not fall through the wayside because we were about a year and a half late getting it started. But we were patient.”

Managing Partner and Chief Financial Officer for The Bennett Group, Fred Bennett, also expressed his appreciation to the parties involved.

“I do want to thank the mayor of this city, not only for your patience, but for making this amazing location available for this property,” Bennett said. “As you pointed out, we are up on a hill. There is not a prettier spot, really. It is going to be a very good spot for this housing. I also want to thank the contractor for their patience. Holland Seals, they have been incredibly embedded with us over the past year trying to do all the preparation.”