Guardian Angel Homes' assisted-living and dementia-care center in Liberty Lake has started work on a four-building, eight-unit cottage project, and more such units are in the early planning stages.

The one-story cottages, under construction at 23102 E. Mission, each will have about 1,100 square feet of floor space and a garage, says Joan Estudillo, director of the complex.

Huntington Homes LLC, of Cedar Hills, Utah, is the contractor on the project, and Forte Architecture & Planning Inc., of Coeur d'Alene, designed it, Estudillo says. She declines to disclose the value of the project.

The cottages will be designed for senior independent living. Each unit will be rented on a monthly basis to up to two residents, and each unit will have two bedrooms, a full bathroom plus a half-bath, a kitchen, and a connected living and dining area, she says. Guardian Angel anticipates the cottages will be completed in October, she says, adding that prospective tenants already have reserved some of the units.

Independent residents at Guardian Angel can participate in meals, activities, and transportation services, but not medical care, Estudillo says.

The project site is located on an acre of land on the south side of Mission Avenue, next to the Guardian Angel Homes retirement community, which is made up of 62 memory-care and assisted-living units and 31 independent-living apartments.

The cottages will be just west of an as-yet-unnamed access road that will connect to Mission Avenue, site plans submitted to the city of Liberty Lake show. The site plans also show spaces for 10 additional cottage units paired in five structures and two larger multi-unit residential structures to be constructed in future phases, subject to market conditions. Estudillo says no timeline has been established yet for those future phases.

Guardian Angel Homes, in Liberty Lake, is owned by Snow Peak 1 Liberty Lake Real Estate Holding Co., which John Geddes, of Hayden, Idaho, heads. The complex is affiliated with other Guardian Angel Homes facilities in Richland, Wash., and Post Falls and Lewiston, Idaho.