Horizon Recuperative Care: Converting an Existing Asset for Critical Community Needs
When Horizon Centers sought to establish a new recuperative care facility, they identified an abandoned 38,469 SF Assisted Living Facility as the ideal foundation for their mission. This conversion project offers a highly valuable and cost-effective approach to quickly delivering critical health services.
Project Scope and Value
The existing building provides significant inherent value for reuse, featuring:
57 Client Rooms
A commercial kitchen and dedicated dining room
Common use areas across multiple floors
Conventional assisted living support spaces
Approximately 48 parking spaces
The cost-benefit of this renovation is substantial. Delivering a ground-up building of this size today is estimated to take two to three years and cost over $21 million. Converting this existing asset is vastly more time and cost-efficient. Initial assessments confirm the building's core structural integrity is sound, with observed damage limited to non-structural, aesthetic, and non-functional elements (such as two nonfunctional elevators and potential roof repairs).
Regulatory Efficiency and RPM's Role
A major advantage of this acquisition was the simplified regulatory pathway, which RPM leveraged to streamline the project:
Zoning & Permitted Use: The site is zoned GC (General Commercial) and the building's most recent permitted use was R-2.1, a classification applicable to both Assisted Living and Recuperative Care facilities.
RPM's Design & Permitting: The RPM Team developed the design for the new use and managed the permitting process for both the use and construction. Because recuperative care falls under the same general occupancy classification (R-2 / R-2.1), the project was not expected to necessitate a special use permit or an occupancy change permit, significantly accelerating timelines.
Beyond Recuperative Care: Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing (STPHH)
In addition to standard recuperative care, Horizon Centers intends to integrate Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing (STPHH) services on-site.
STPHH provides patients who are medically cleared to leave the hospital, but lack a safe place to recover, with temporary post-hospital housing. By offering unhoused individuals comprehensive and holistic care during this vulnerable period, the program prevents them from immediately returning to the hospital and helps connect them with long-term housing and health management.
As Professor Sir Michael Marmot famously stated: "Why treat people and send them back to the conditions that made them sick?”
Horizon Centers intends to reserve approximately 25% of the beds (30 beds) for the vital STPHH program.
Accelerated Approval through Innovative Legislation
This project was a landmark for the City of San Jose, as it was the first project to exercise Ordinance No. 31907. This ordinance allows for a ministerial review and approval at the planning stage, significantly accelerating the timeline. This streamlined process was instrumental in the project's speed, allowing the entire process—from first submission to planning to obtaining the final building permit—to be completed in just 4.5 months.
This conversion project is a critical step in providing necessary health and housing support, demonstrating how RPM Team delivers complex facility solutions with maximum efficiency and community impact by leveraging innovative design and regulatory pathways.
