A new “gold standard” for a Class A, luxury senior living facility is being planned for Tustin’s former Marine air station.
Confluent Senior Living and MorningStar Senior Living, both based in Denver, last month entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city of Tustin to develop MorningStar at Tustin Legacy, an approximately 283,000-square-foot, large-scale senior living community.
“MorningStar at Tustin Legacy will boast exceptional residential offerings and amenities, purposely built to increase socialization and active living for our residents and their families and be a time-tested, eye-catching neighborhood landmark for generations to come,” Ken Jaeger, MorningStar founder and CEO, said in a statement.
The main building will be located along the Warner and Armstrong Avenue corridors in Tustin Legacy, a 1,600-acre community that is on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station Tustin.
The facility, on 6 acres, will be within walking distance of the two hangars that got the base the nickname “Hangar City” and which still exists 24 years after the base’s closure.
Sophisticated SoCal
The proposal is another entry into a developing market for upper-class housing for seniors.
Last year, Nexus Companies opened the $130 million Vivante Newport Center, a luxury retirement complex with 99 apartments within walking distance of Newport Beach’s Fashion Island.
Nexus in 2013 opened the Vivante Newport Mesa, a 296-unit assisted living community on Monrovia Avenue, a few blocks from Hoag’s Newport Beach hospital.
Newport Beach-based HPI Architecture, which designed the 195,000-square-foot Vivante on the Coast in Newport Beach for Nexus, is planning the Morningstar at Tustin Legacy project.
Confluent Senior Living, a national developer and investor of senior projects, is a subsidiary of Confluent Development, a real estate investment and development firm that has more than 100 projects across the U.S.
MorningStar Senior Living has a portfolio of more than 40 properties with more than 5,000 units under management or in development in 11 states throughout the West and Midwest.
Earlier this year, it opened in Mission Viejo a new 155,250-square-foot community that has 64 independent living suites, 38 assisted living suites and 30 memory care suites.
The companies decided their next OC project would be Tustin because of high barriers to entry for competitors, demographics that show an aging population and a large adult child population who would make the decisions as their parents aged, according to Matt Derrick, managing director of Confluent Senior Living.
“This market meets and beats our benchmarks when it compares to our national portfolio,” Derrick told the Business Journal.
“When you look at the demographics, it tells us that Tustin is a great market.
“It feels like a place where mom and dad would like to spend their later years. It’s pretty high on our target list.”
He declined to say how much the Tustin project will cost, except to say it’s more than $50 million.
Opening 2027
The Tustin facility is anticipated to break ground in the first half of 2025. Morningstar’s webpage is advertising an opening in the third quarter of 2027.
The facility will feature two connected buildings up to five stories in height over a single level of parking.
It will have 145 independent living units, 60 assisted living units, and a secure memory care wing with 28 supportive units designed with Confluent and MorningStar’s Whole Health Standard.
The main buildings will be complemented by 29 adjacent single-story cottages off secondary streets of future John Johnson Way and future Veterans Way.
Residents will have walkable access to proposed amenities in the main building such as high-end dining options, a fitness center, spa, theater, salon, art room, outdoor aquatics, rooftop pickleball, putt-putt golf and club room among others.
“We’d love to do more in OC. We’ve enjoyed our experience with both Mission Viejo and Tustin,” Derrick said.
