Delivering More Than Just Construction Services at Casa de Oakes
One of the most exciting projects Friede & Associates has helped bring to fruition recently is the Casa de Oakes assisted living and memory care community in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. This 40-unit, 33,000-square-foot senior housing complex with new corporate offices, could not have been completed without a great deal of teamwork. Between the Casa de Oakes team, the City of Reedsburg’s development corporation, and the Friede team, we worked to identify the perfect site as well as available tax incentives and financing for this much-needed senior and memory care facility.
Teamwork From the Start
It all began when Casa de Oakes President Becky Knull called Friede & Associates in the Spring of 2014 to see if we could help her and her team to build a new senior housing project. Becky explained that, while Casa owned and operated a number of in-home care centers in Baraboo and Reedsburg, they were interested in developing a larger, modern centralized facility that would not only provide senior housing but also provide a much-needed memory care unit within the county.
Friede & Associates immediately recommended that we pair up with Architectural Design Consultants, Inc. (ADCI) of Lake Delton—one of Wisconsin’s leading designers of community-based residential facilities—to begin preliminary design development to determine not only what the project might ultimately look like, but also to determine how much land would be necessary for this exciting development. Once concept drawings were completed, the Friede team worked with Casa to identify potential sites. We ultimately identified and helped negotiate the purchase of a suitable parcel of land on the city’s southern border.
During the course of the site search, the Friede team also began negotiating potential tax incremental financing with the city industrial development corporation and the city administration, and these negotiations resulted in a significant six-figure TIF contribution based on the $4.6 million projects. The pre-construction services the Friede-ADCI team generated also assisted Casa de Oakes in securing the project financing from a local bank and the Small Business Administration in 2014. Plans were completed and subcontractors were selected over the winter and on March 27, 2015 (exactly one year after Becky’s first call to Friede) the entire team—Casa, Friede, ADCI, and the City of Reedsburg—turned out for the groundbreaking of this exciting project.
Over the next nine months, our construction proceeded and the senior wing was completed and open for business before year’s end, with the memory care wing opening in early 2016.
Today, Casa de Oakes has established itself as one of the region’s market leaders in terms of both services offered and value to its clients and their families. It has become an attractive and efficient new senior living project loved by the community. It even exceeded the developer’s initial performance goals in terms of occupancy. The project, contractor and developer were also honored, earning recognition from the Reedsburg Chamber of Commerce at its annual business awards event in early 2016, and then again by the Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) as a 2016 Projects of Distinction Award winner the Health Care category.
Casa de Oakes is now considered an asset in the Reedsburg community and it provides much-needed services. Friede & Associates is proud of its efforts in identifying a suitable site; working with our client, city officials, banks, and others to determine the optimal financial arrangements; and in building the assisted living and memory care facility that will serve the residents of Reedsburg for many years to come.
About Friede & Associates:
When you select Friede & Associates, you are buying more than our quality-assured construction services. You also get the performance and reliability of some of the top suppliers and subcontractors in the area. While other contractors may be cutting quality to remain competitive on price, Friede is forging relationships with members of the project team to bring you the best value and highest quality for your investment.
