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Newport-based Neighborhood Foundations celebrates grand opening of Highland Village


Local leaders and residents today celebrated the grand opening of Highland Village, a $22 million premier luxury living community that marks the return of senior housing to Highland Heights.

The fully-leased, three-story, 118-unit housing development sits on 7.4 acres at 515 Main Ave. It was developed by the Newport-based Neighborhood Foundations for residents 55 years and older. There are currently 88 applicants on a waiting list for Highland Village.
 
Highland Heights has been without a senior living facility since 2013 when Campbell County sold the former Lakeside Terrace to Northern Kentucky University, which ultimately turned the facility into student residence halls.

“This is a futuristic, state-of-the-art facility for seniors in this vicinity,” said resident Anis Pretot, 70, who moved to Highland Village from elsewhere in Highland Heights. “This is a vibrant, independent community. The staff is wonderful. For the self-sufficient person, it is ideal. The amenities are wonderful. It is centrally located and convenient to shopping, restaurants and healthcare providers. We are connected to public transportation. I would highly recommend Highland Village as place to live. It is a true community.”
 
Highland Village community amenities include:

• Healthcare office
• Fitness center
• A seasonal community garden
• Computer lab
• Residential walking paths
• Hair and nail salon
• An outdoor gazebo
• Storage lockers
• Private meeting rooms
• Ample parking
 
Neighborhood Foundations and the City of Highland Heights partnered with the Campbell County Fiscal Court, The Kentucky Housing Corporation, The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati and private investors to fund and develop the project. Kentucky State Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder, secured $500,000 in affordable housing funding from the Kentucky Department of Local Government.

So how did senior housing developed by a Newport organization end up in Highland Heights? The roots of Highland Village can be tracked to Sis’s on Monmouth, a comfortable and popular Newport diner where local movers and shakers meet daily for breakfast.

It was at Sis’s that two Saturday morning regulars – Highland Heights Mayor Greg Meyers and Neighborhood Foundations Executive Director Tom Guidugli Sr. – began talking about bringing senior housing back to Highland Heights.

“This all started at Sis’s,” said Guidugli. “The mayor was telling me that the city had lost 100 or so senior housing units when Lakeside Terrace was sold to the college. The city bought eight acres where the old Highland Heights Elementary was located, and he was figuring out how to bring some senior housing to that site.”

“After the county got out of the housing business and sold Lakeside Terrace, we wanted to do something where seniors could live in Highland Heights,” Mayor Meyers said. “I saw Tom Guidugli every Saturday morning at Sis’s. He had the expertise, I had the land, so we started talking and decided to try to make something happen.”

Meyers said he, Guidugli, Campbell County Attorney Steve Franzen and Neighborhood Foundations attorney Tom Fisher – a Newport resident with the firm of Barron Peck Bennie & Schlemmer – held “countless meetings” over the last few years to forge a development plan and agreement.

“We started with a conversation, that became a vision and then finally a workable plan,” Guidugli said.”We hit a few bumps along the way, but we are thrilled with how Highland Village has turned out. It’s definitely lived up to its potential.”

Neighborhood Foundations


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