A developer has received approval from the Davie Town Council to build a 164-bed assisted living facility, following a 4-1 vote in favor of the project. The proposed facility will cater to elderly residents who require assisted living or memory care and cannot live independently.
Architect Manuel Synalovski presented the case for the development at last week’s council meeting. He stated, “The market is immense,” referencing studies indicating that Broward County currently offers about 9,600 beds in assisted living facilities, while approximately 360,000 residents—18 percent of the county’s population—are in need of such services.
The new facility is planned as an L-shaped, three-story building with 164 private rooms and will feature a central courtyard and an aqua therapy pool. Eco Contracting LLC, led by Gennady Kiselman, is developing the project. Kiselman also manages 5000 Davie LLC, which purchased the nearly four-acre site at 4980-5000 South Davie Road for $1.8 million in 2020.
Synalovski noted that the location was chosen due to its proximity to local medical institutions: it is situated 2.5 miles south of HCA Florida University Hospital and north of Memorial Hospital Pembroke in Pembroke Pines, adjacent to Nova Southeastern University’s Davie campus.
In addition to approving the site plan and rezoning request, the council supported seven other proposals related to the project—including four zoning variances and an allocation of 82 “flex units.” Under town regulations, these flex units allow for a denser grouping of dwelling units; a facility with 164 beds is considered equivalent to 82 residential units according to Davie’s comprehensive plan.
Mayor Judy Paul cast the lone dissenting vote on all nine measures tied to the development. She expressed concerns about its scale: “When you first came in with this, I had asked you to do something smaller,” she told Kiselman and Synalovski during the meeting. “You wouldn’t have needed so many variances. You should have done something smaller. Instead, you came in asking for flex units to make it bigger.”
Paul also raised questions about why the property has been listed for sale since its acquisition. “That was very concerning to me,” she said. “We’ve seen this happen before, where we approved something, and they put it up for sale and it never gets built.”
Kiselman responded that potential lenders wanted him to list the site publicly as part of their process for determining its value: “It’s been on the market for four years just to establish the value,” he said. He added that his intention remains to construct the facility before selling it on to a major operator specializing in assisted living properties.
