A ground-breaking ceremony was held April 19 for a new assisted living facility being constructed off N. Glaspie St. in Oxford Village.

Wielding shovels big and small, Bloomfield Hills residents Matt and Marie Kopmeyer, the owners and operators of BeeHive Homes of Oxford, along with their five children, smiled big for the cameras as they tossed a little dirt around.

“We love Oxford. It’s a great little town,” Matt said. “It’s a small community and it fits really well with BeeHive.”

In December 2017, village planning commissioners voted unanimously to grant special land use approval and site plan approval for phase one to BeeHive Homes, a Boise, Idaho franchisor of assisting living facilities.

BeeHive is developing a 6.16-acre vacant parcel of land located on the west side of N. Glaspie St., north of Powell St. and the Polly Ann Trail, on the village-township border.

The plan is to eventually construct five single-story, congregate-style homes for a total of 100 senior citizens. Each home will contain 20 units, each with a bedroom and bathroom.

Matt said the first home will be open “hopefully, by October.”

“As soon as we’re ready for occupancy, we’ll start moving people in,” he said. “We’re taking reservations now.”

What separates BeeHive Homes from other assisted living facilities, according to Matt, is the “dedication to care” and the homelike atmosphere. He explained that at most assisting living facilities, the first thing people see when they enter is a front desk and a receptionist.

“You walk into BeeHive Homes, you walk into the great room, you see a piano, you see the kitchen. It’s a very large home,” Matt said. “It’s really our home and it’s us taking care of our residents and extended family.”

BeeHive Homes of Oxford is planning to form a campus setting consisting of one 12,977-square-foot building and four 11,787-square-foot buildings. The project will be built in five phases with each single-story home constituting a single phase.

Site plan approval was granted for the 12,977-square-foot building. The other four buildings (or phases) will require individual site plan approvals from the village.

“All five are the same,” Matt noted. “The only difference is the first building. We have a small office area attached to the home.”

BeeHive Homes built its first facilities in 1987 in Meridian, Idaho and now has more than 160 homes spread across 18 states.

The Oxford location is “the first BeeHive in Michigan,” according to Matt.