Journeyman Group, along with its operating partner Civitas Senior Living and DFD Architects, broke ground today on The Philomena, a new assisted living and memory care facility in Kyle.

“It’s a great visible place,” Pat Riordan of Journeyman told attendees before the ceremony. “We’re building something that’s needed in the community.”

The project, which was approved by the Kyle Planning and Zoning Commission in February, will be a wood frame, 65,000-square-foot building on a 6-acre site at 350 Philomena Drive, next to the new IDEA charter school. It will have a total of 101 beds, 67 in assisted living and 34 in memory care.

The developers estimate it will be finished by December 2019.

The Philomena will be only one story, in part because “it is scaled for the neighborhood,” Riordan said, adding that the project has support from the homeowners association on the adjacent property.

Civitas has locations throughout Texas and in several other states; it runs its facilities on a “social model,” according to Cindy Swink, Civitas' regional director of community outreach. She said The Philomena will be pet-friendly.

“This will be unique, innovative and a beautiful new community,” Swink said. “But more than it’s going to be about the relationships. We want to be good neighbors.”