SEARHC is moving ahead with plans to build housing for its staff who work in Wrangell on short-term assignments.

The first phase will include eight furnished rentals in three duplexes and two single-unit buildings, said Ryan Matej, the Juneau-based chief strategic financial officer for the health care provider.

It will be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, he said.

SEARHC plans to develop property it owns — just under 3.3 acres — on the uphill side of Zimovia Highway, about 1,000 feet out the road from TK’s Mini Mart.

It hopes to go out for bids on the land clearing soon, starting site prep in a month or two, Matej said in an interview on Aug. 7. Construction would be planned for 2026.

A second phase in the future could include as many as 10 additional rental units, he said.

SEARHC, with more than 160 staffers, is the largest employer in town. The Zimovia Highway development would be its first employee housing in Wrangell. The health care provider expanded its presence in town when it opened a new $30 million hospital in 2021.

Matej said the nonprofit has built 32 units of employee housing in Sitka, where it operates a hospital and other facilities. Wrangell would be its only other employee housing. SEARHC serves 26 communities in Southeast, operating permanent facilities in most of them and traveling clinics in others.

Many of the staff in Wrangell are travelers, who come to town for temporary assignments. Ensuring housing for temporary staffers and relieving the pressure on the community’s tight housing market are the main drivers behind the development in Wrangell, said Juneau-based Matt Carle, senior system director of brand identity and tribal relations at SEARHC.

Building housing “is part of a broader strategy” to help recruit and retain staff, he said.

SEARHC declined to provide a cost estimate for the construction project or rents.

The first phase of eight units will be built on the uphill portion of the long lot, while the second phase would be built closer to Zimovia Highway.

The idea is to build the road to the top of the lot at the start of the project, Matej said. “You might as well get all the road in (at the start).”

SEARHC plans to employ a landscape architect to design the site, retaining as many trees as possible and minimizing earth moving. “We’ll try to keep the natural grade,” he said.

The project will require a new access road from Zimovia Highway.

The borough helped move ahead the decision to build employee housing when the assembly in July amended municipal code to allow planned unit developments (PUDs). “After they did that, we were all aboard,” Matej said.

The PUDs ordinance, referred to as a “land-use tool” by the borough, allows flexible design in residential and mixed-use land development, according to a staff report to the assembly.

The planning and zoning commission had been working on the ordinance since 2021.

“The purpose of the planned unit development ordinance is to encourage creative, efficient and coordinated land development that may not fit within the parameters of conventional zoning,” according to the staff report.

SEARHC will need to apply for a PUD permit and a building permit to develop the property.

Matej presented at the planning and zoning commission in May and said he has been working closely with City Hall on plans for the project.