The Imperial Pointe master plan was announced in 2016. On Tuesday, the Lake Charles Kiwanis Club heard the latest on the development off Nelson Road, right down to the coffee brand to be served on campus. The 75-acre, infrastructure-ready, pre-programmed campus started with 18 acres.

“We really started about 2006, and what happened was that, in conjunction with the Eye Clinic, The Center for Orthopedics, which at that time was a small group, was looking for a site to have an ambulatory surgery center, medical office building and an outpatient imaging center,” Dr. John Noble told the group.

Noble is the managing partner of Imperial Pointe, a retired orthopedic surgeon, real estate developer and entrepreneur with a passion for solving health care-related problems.

“We were seeing our colleagues develop physician-owned hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers and imaging centers around the country,” Noble said.

In college, Noble worked for the managing partner of the Eye Clinic, and they became close friends.

“Dr. Lacoste and I decided to develop an ambulatory surgery center together, known as the Imperial Surgery Center, and it was the main economic driver of the campus.”

Christus Ochsner is 51 percent owner of the center, and the name has changed to reflect that. Noble said the transaction was motivated by changes in the insurance industry.

The financial crisis in 2008 made it possible for Imperial Pointe partners to purchase land surrounding the initial acreage. Because the development began with health care, senior living seemed a likely fit.

“The latest development is the Villages of Imperial Pointe,” Noble said, “a 129-unit apartment building for ages 55-plus. It’s independent living. It’s not assisted living. It is not an old person’s home. It’s a place where people can live in luxury and have activities and dining and all sorts of other amenities.”

Other housing will include single-story cottages, an active adult neighborhood along the lines of a Margaritaville or Sun City, assisted living and memory care.

“One of the nice things about assisted living is that we’re going to be able to bring remote physiological monitoring, one device that we can use for all the residents of assisted living, as opposed to 100 different devices to allow us to monitor more proactively in real time,” Noble said.

When Noble talked about the wellness services of the campus, he made it clear he was talking about more than keeping people in shape. He was talking about anti-aging therapies, physical and occupational therapy, medically supervised weight loss, and medically supervised smoking cessation, for example.

A new surgery center will specialize in joint replacement, and equipment will be available to test residents’ balance before a fall so that they can do exercises to prevent falls.

Retail will be health-related. Noble said Marriott and Hilton have expressed interest in the hotel planned for the community, and the Capital Club expressed interest in establishing a YMCA in Imperial Pointe. There will be a Toasty Joe’s restaurant – and a coffee shop with a backstory that goes back six generations set to cause a stir.