Riverview Retirement Community, a Christian nonprofit that provides health care, housing and services for elderly people, has been issued permits for foundation work and site development for its a planned $5.5 million memory care facility, according to city permit data.

The $600,000 in work at the 58-year-old retirement facility, 1801 E. Upriver Drive, is the first step toward a 20,000-square-foot, one-story facility that will serve about 20 people with memory care needs such as dementia or Alzheimer’s. Each occupant will have their own room, and additional rooms will be available for spouses and partners, according to a predevelopment application filed with the city.

The facility will have a village-type design, and rooms will be centered around a large living area to make residents feel more comfortable.

The memory care building will be just north of the facility’s central Riverview Terrace facility, which has more than 200 residential units. Maintenance and storage garages were demolished to make way for the new building.

The retirement facility, which provides assisted and independent living on its 32-acre campus, opened in 1959 with Riverview Terrace and has expanded over the years to include Riverview Care Center and Riverview Village, which has 165 homes for independent living.

In 2013, the facility built a fitness and aquatics center and woodworking shop.

The new memory care facility is expected to open in September. The official groundbreaking for the facility was last month, and the same shovel used for the facility’s first groundbreaking in 1958 was used.

The project’s general contractor is Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane. The facility was designed by Spokane-based NAC Architecture, which also designed the village cottages and the fitness and aquatics center. The structural engineering was done by Coffman Engineers, also of Spokane.