Seniors For Living

Retrofitting is one of the hottest trends in senior living these days, and this California project may top them all.

We have covered stories about similar projects here on the blog: old schoolhouses converted to assisted living, abandoned churches transformed into independent living apartments, a ski resort adapted to an upscale retirement community, and a trailer park given a new life as affordable senior housing.

This one is in a category all its own. According to this L.A. Times story, developers are altering a 107-year-old hospital into a senior living community, a project with proposed costs of $40 million.

A hospital-turned-senior-living may not seem like a stretch, but the hospital’s history is what sets it apart.

Abandoned and empty for 25 years, the Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles has a reputation of being haunted. Consequently, it has been widely used by filmmakers, TV producers, and musicians: among them, the band Duran Duran, the popular TV medical drama “ER,” and the horror film, “Seven.”

Not to worry, says Maurice Ramirez of Amcal Multi-Housing, Inc. (the project’s developer), as quoted in the L.A. Times piece: “It’s going to look like an upscale hotel…people in the neighborhood will really see a transformation.”