An apartment complex for retirees at McClellan is set to open in September, more than two months later than originally planned. Rainy weather is to blame.

Renovations are still underway to transform a McClellan building into an assisted living facility called the McClellan Assisted Living Community. The building, next to a retiree-housing complex called Casey Estates, is part of a larger plan to turn part of the former fort into a retirement community to stimulate the local economy, officials say.

Chip Cook, administrator of the facility, said it's scheduled to open by mid-September at the latest. The project was announced in October and was at that time projected to open this month.

"We're well underway with the renovations," Cook said. "But this weather has slowed us down ... it has been raining a lot."

Once complete, the facility will have 60 apartments and employ 26 people.

"We have not started hiring yet," Cook said.

Cook said a job fair would be set up in the coming months to take applications.

As an assisted living facility, the apartment complex will offer retirees a moderate level of care but still much of their independence, Cook said.

"An assisted living facility offers assistance with some of the activities of daily living, like providing meals and help getting dressed in the morning," Cook said. "And there is assistance with routine medication."

Robin Scott, executive director of the McClellan Development Authority, tasked with developing the former fort, has said the McClellan Assisted Living Community and Casey Estates are just parts of a larger plan to create a retirement center there. The overall goal is to attract retirees from inside and outside Calhoun County to McClellan, meaning more health care workers would be needed to treat them. Also, the increase in retirees would generate more revenue for the area as they spend money at local businesses, Scott has said.

Cook said he has not received as many potential tenant inquiries as he would like just yet, but noted those he has received were from people inside and outside the county.

"It's been a healthy mix of both," Cook said, noting he will soon increase marketing of the facility to grow interest.

McClellan already has another retiree housing project set to start once the assisted living facility is finished. Diversified Real Estate Services, the Georgia company developing McClellan Assisted Living Community, plans to convert five former barracks on Buckner Circle into retiree housing by 2015.

"And this is still just the beginning," Scott said. "We have totally revamped our marketing plan here at the MDA and we will start marketing our property to brokers and developers we've identified that build retirement communities."

Scott added that the authority plans to demolish 29 dilapidated buildings this year, freeing up more property for developers.

Randy Frost, director of the Area Agency on Aging in Anniston, said there is a growing need for assisted living facilities.

"There is a general trend of people who are aging and living longer, but who don't necessarily need the highest level of care like a nursing home," Frost said. "They're designed for an interim period, when people are older but are not faced with a lot of chronic health conditions ... plus, they offer the advantage of not having to cut your grass or take out the garbage."

According to Census Bureau population estimates, Alabama's population of residents 65 and older increased about 6.3 percent between 2010 and 2012. The statistics show Calhoun County's population in that age group increased 4.6 percent during the same time. The total U.S. senior population increased about 7.14 percent, the statistics show.

Frost said he hoped the growth in assisted living facilities will eventually lower the cost for such care.

"Hopefully from a cost perspective, as things become more competitive, they'll become more affordable to a greater percentage of people," Frost said. "From an economic standpoint, the more we have provides more competition and more choices."

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