State approves construction of $48M skilled nursing facility in Anchorage

The state has approved a proposal for a $48 million, 150-bed skilled nursing facility in Anchorage, according to an online notice.

Aspen Creek Management, an affiliate of Spring Creek Enterprise in Alpine, Utah, applied early last year for a certificate of need from the state to build the Aspen Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation facility in Midtown.

The 88,000-square-foot project would be constructed next to the company’s 120-bed Aspen Creek Senior Living facility at 5915 Petersburg St., off East Dowling Road. That facility opened in 2019.

The new facility will offer a mix of services including long-term, transitional and rehabilitation care, according to an online notice from January 2022 about the proposal.

The company is “thrilled” with the approval, Douglas Clegg, CEO of Aspen Creek Senior Living, said Thursday.

While the online notice said construction was estimated to begin next month and be completed by the end of 2025, Clegg said that timeline would likely be delayed and that an updated construction timeline for the project would be announced soon.

The facility will help address a critical need for high-level, long-term care for Alaska’s rapidly growing senior population, Clegg said, noting a lack of beds in particular for seniors recovering from illness or injury.

“They either end up staying in the hospital longer than they need to, or we end up deporting them to the Lower 48, where these types of services are being offered,” he said.

“We’re losing seniors by the droves because our state is not offering these services,” Clegg said.

Alaska’s certificate-of-need law is designed in part to reduce health care costs by eliminating construction of unnecessary facilities, Alexandria Hicks, coordinator for the department’s certificate of need program, told the Daily News last year.