Ararat Home of Los Angeles, a senior housing provider focused on the Armenian-American community, is expanding its operations in Mission Hills.

Last week, the organization submitted an application to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning seeking entitlements for the construction a 370,000-square-foot senior care complex at 15151-15155 W. Mission Hills Road.  The proposed 370,000-square-foot development would include 101 apartments for independent seniors, 159 memory care units, 78 assisted living units, a 96-bed skilled nursing facility, and parking for 161 vehicles.

Zakian Woo Architects of Culver City is designing the project, which would replace two existing single-family residences, but leave most of the 13-acre hillside property as green space.  Plans call for a two blocks of interconnected buildings - ranging between one and four stories in height - arranged around central driveways.

The Ararat Home will require the approval of several entitlements by Los Angeles city officials, including an eldercare permit and a zoning administrator's adjustment to allow exemptions to certain requirements relative to building heights and setbacks.

According to the organization's official website, the Ararat Home dates to 1949, when a group of Armenian-Americans purchased a two-story home at 3730 W. 27th Street in the West Adams district to provide accommodations for elderly members of the community.  That initial facility housed seven residents upon opening in 1951, and later went through a series of expansions which increased maximum occupancy to 80 persons.

The organization looked elsewhere for subsequent expansions, purchasing a convalescent home in Eagle Rock in 1980, and followed by the purchase of an undeveloped 10.5-acre lot in Mission Hills in 1981.  That lot is now home to the Ararat Home's main campus, which - like the newly proposed development - includes a mix of assisted living, memory care, and independent apartments, as well as a skilled nursing home.

Ararat purchased the development site - which sits directly west of its main campus for just over $11 million in 2019, according to City records.