One company is providing retirement living in Basehor, while another firm plans to build in Tonganoxie.

John Bonee of Bonee Construction, Basehor, is completing construction of Pebblebrooke, a retirement community that provides apartment living.

Debbie Bonee said that of the 35 units available in the development, 25 are leased.

“There’s still some availability,” Bonee said. “We’re rushing to get ones completed for everyone on our waiting list.”

The units cost $775 a month and include water, sewer and trash services, along with maintenance and lawn care.

The adult living complex’s completion date was estimated for sometime in December, but Bonee said that the mild winter helped construction plans. She said the project hopefully would be completed by September.

“We decided to give it a shot out here, and it’s been very successful,” Bonee said.

The Bonees, who also build primarily single-family residences and constructed the Commercial Parallel Parkway Business Park in Basehor, saw the need for additional retirement housing in the area.

“Everyone we know who was older had to move to Johnson County,” Bonee said. “Some of our own relatives we’re looking, too.”

The complex attracted people from as close as Basehor to as distant as Illinois. The retirement community also attracted people from Tonganoxie, but now that community soon could have its own retirement living.

Cohen-Esrey Development, a Kansas City, Mo.,-based real estate company, will build a 24-unit senior independent living area in Tonganoxie’s Stone Creek development. The housing is planned for Stone Creek Avenue and Willowbend Drive.

The two-bedroom housing with attached garages will run at $470 plus utilities, and is geared toward active seniors. Tenants will be responsible for lawn care and snow removal.

“This really is an alternative for active seniors,” said Brian Collins, senior associate with the company.

Although the development is not low-income housing, tenants must earn 50 percent less than the area median income.

The project is expected to cost $2.7 million. Collins said Cohen-Esrey should hear about federal grants in the next month, while word about an application with Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka should come in June.

“We’re very pleased with the product we’re proposing,” Collins said. “We had a similar project in Sedgwick. Everyone connected with it is very happy with the development.”

The company hopes to begin construction this fall and the development should open in September 2003.

Bonee Construction, meanwhile, could expand its project after finishing the current one.

“There’s some possibility of us buying some adjacent property,” Bonee said about the Basehor site. “We might have a similar complex in another location, possibly Tonganoxie.”