OLDHAM COUNTY, Ky. — Developers of a new senior living community are proposing a “one of a kind” facility to Oldham County. If approved, Brighten Heights will be a senior living facility focused on preventing and reversing chronic disease and mobility challenges.


What You Need To Know

  • Brighten Heights is a proposed senior living facility in Pewee Valley

  • Focused on reversing and preventing chronic diseases

  • If approved, will have 102 independent apartments, 32 Independent Living “Cottages,” 32 Assisted Living Private Apartments, 16 Memory Optimization Private Suites

  • The Pewee Valley City Council will meet on April 5 at 7 p.m. for the second reading of the proposal and public hearing to decide the future of Brighten Heights

“We're excited to continue our legacy there, where we're from, and be a part of this greater opportunity within the market,” Edens said.

The historic piece of land in Pewee Valley has been the site of health and healing for nearly a century. Formerly home to the Pewee Valley Hospital in 1925, it was later turned into Friendship Health and Rehab before closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Layout of the proposed facility. // COURTESY KATIE CUSTER, RUNSWITCH PR

Brighten Heights developers are proposing a new project but hope to keep the same values. Susan Pena, chief strategy officer of Potentia Living, said it was no simple task.

“So, I first approached colleagues that were executive directors at senior living communities and started pitching this idea to them and they said, 'great idea, has it been done anywhere else yet?' In other words, no one really wanted to go first,” Pena said.

Eden, president of the Rural Educational Association of Kentucky, and Pena spending her career working in the industry came together to create the innovative senior facility focused on empowering active seniors.

Brighten Heights plans to monitor the patient's lifestyle choices.

“The things you do with your lifestyle, you can actually turn your good genes on and your bad genes off and vise versa. So it's all of those things, its food, its exercise, its sleep, its social connection, stress management, etc., etc. that leads to being able to live these healthy lifestyles,” Pena said.

The facility plans to have both independent and assisted living apartments as well as walking paths, a health and performance center, and educational programs to understand underlying causes of chronic diseases.

The senior living facility will focus on what they call the four pillars of positive change that include education, hope support, and choice.

“So the goal is to live long and die short. You want to live healthy and live with purpose, it’s hard to live with purpose if you don't feel good. Seniors have a lot to offer if they feel good enough to share it,” Pena said.

Although the pandemic has placed challenges on nursing homes and senior living facilities across the country, Brighten Heights hopes to overcome those and be the next chapter.

“We feel like given this opportunity, we’ve been able to step back and take a fresh look at this. Staffing is always a number one concern in operations. We feel like we’ll have that as a bit of a leg up in recruiting,” Edens said.

The Pewee Valley City Council will meet on April 5 at 7 p.m. for the second reading of the proposal and public hearing to decide the future of Brighten Heights. 

If approved, the Brighten Heights facility is designed to combat COVID-19 or any virus with touchless sinks and doors as well as private rooms and bathrooms for those with chronic conditions.,

More information can be found online.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misspelled Katie Custer's first name as "Kayla" under the photos she provided. The error has been corrected. We regret the error.