Bart Shea has been crunching numbers on a proposed development in downtown Fountain Hills for the better part of two years now.

He’s fairly certain the plan is financially sustainable.

Right now the project has reached the frustratingly tedious stage that all projects go through – the concept has come together, but it still needs the fine tuning for permits and zoning approvals necessary to move ahead.

Shea said he first started working on a plan for the area five years ago – specifically the assisted living component that is proposed for the land behind the Lexington Hotel.

For various reasons that plan did not gain traction but resurfaced a couple of years ago.

Construction of assisted living facilities is Shea’s core business, and he was approached by an operator who was interested in Fountain Hills and the property owner was interested as well.

Shea said when they took the idea to the town they were told “great, what are you going to do with the rest of the downtown?”

The initial reaction was “nothing,” they weren’t interested, according to Shea.

“The town really wanted to get that developed,” he said. “They were adamant about in-line retail along the Avenue.”

With the assisted living pretty much in line, Shea went to work to see what could be done to make the rest of the property a viable development.

“I’ve thought this through and it was really pretty hard to get to this point,” Shea said.

A plan has been submitted to the town for land use and zoning considerations.

The developer chose a Planned Area Development (PAD) application because it works best in combining the plan’s varied elements into a single zoning case.

There is 50,000 square feet of retail proposed along with 400 residential apartment units. At this point the units would be apartments and not condominiums.

Shea said there is actually a shortage of apartment rentals in Fountain Hills. He said less than 10 percent of the rental units in town are true apartments.

He has thought through what it will take to make the retail sustainable. He wants to avoid the chain businesses and focus on smaller units – 1,500 to 2,000 square feet – to line the street level.

“I worked hard to adhere to what the town wants and what will work,” Shea said. “You have heard a lot of promises in the past, (but) I’m not making any promises.”

Shea is convinced this is the only plan that works and will be sustainable.

There is no movie theater in the plan, something people have clamored for in the past.

According to Shea, he has been told by some of the best in the business that a theater at this location simply will not work.

“Even if we gave them the building they couldn’t make it work,” Shea said.

The proposed assisted living is for Morningstar, a Colorado company with two facilities already operating in the Phoenix area. They want to be in Fountain Hills, according to Shea.

He said they are a great company and do their facilities in the right way. Work on the assisted living could begin within about 30 days of building permit approval.

The plan calls for construction to begin on the apartments and retail with two buildings on either side of Verde River Drive at the Avenue. Shea said he is hoping to begin construction on this portion of the project by the end of the third quarter (September).

Some of the buildings are proposed to be four stories high.

Construction start times are contingent on getting plan and permit approvals in order. To date, town Senior Planner Bob Rodgers said the project has not yet been scheduled for P&Z or Town Council review.

In spite of early reluctance for the Avenue proposal, Shea said he is now all in.

He notes that this project is in excess of $100 million that will employee more than a 100 people for up to five years of construction. In the end there will be 50,000 square feet of retail with up to 600 new residents living in the core of downtown.

Shea has lived in Fountain Hills and Goldfield Ranch for nearly three decades. He said he wants to do what is right for the town.

“In the end this is still my home and I don’t want to do anything I’ll regret 20 years out,” he concluded.