A developer has received approval from the Davie Town Council to build a 164-bed assisted living facility, despite concerns raised by the town’s mayor about the project’s size and future.
The facility is designed for elderly residents who require assisted living or memory care. “The market is immense,” said Manuel Synalovski, the architect for the development, during last week’s council meeting. He cited studies indicating that Broward County currently offers around 9,600 assisted living beds but has approximately 360,000 residents—18 percent of its population—in need of such services.
Plans call for a three-story, L-shaped building with 164 private rooms arranged around a central courtyard featuring an aqua therapy pool. The developer is Eco Contracting LLC, led by Gennady Kiselman. Kiselman also manages 5000 Davie LLC, which purchased the nearly four-acre site at 4980-5000 South Davie Road in 2020 for $1.8 million.
According to Synalovski, proximity to medical facilities was a factor in choosing the location: it sits roughly 2.5 miles south of HCA Florida University Hospital and about the same distance 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 by a vote of 4-1, council members supported seven other proposals related to the project—including four zoning variances and allocation of “flex units” that permit greater residential density under local rules. The planned facility’s bed count equates to 82 dwelling units as defined by Davie’s comprehensive plan.
Mayor Judy Paul cast the lone dissenting vote on all nine items. She objected primarily to what she described as excessive scale: “When you first came in with this, I had asked you to do something smaller,” Paul told Kiselman and Synalovski at 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 expressed concern over reports that the property had been listed for sale before construction began: “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 lenders considering financing required listing the property on the market as part of their valuation process: “It’s been on the market for four years just to establish the value,” he said. He added that his intention is still to build out the facility before selling it on completion to an established operator in senior housing.
