The Neighborhood marks 10 years in Rio Rancho, grows with city

Founded in 2016, The Neighborhood marked its 10th anniversary on Loma Colorado Boulevard with a ribbon cutting, residents and staff who helped build the community from the start. What began with just one, two or three residents has become a 170-person senior campus with about 140 employees, a scale that mirrors Rio Rancho’s own rise and its need for more care options close to home.

Executive Director Harold Ermshar said the milestone reflected more than business growth. The community now offers independent living, assisted living, fitness and wellness programming, occupational, physical and speech therapy, a memory support unit, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. For older adults and their families, that mix matters because it lets residents stay in one place even as their needs change, instead of forcing a move across town or out of Sandoval County.

The anniversary also highlighted The Neighborhood’s role beyond housing. The community works with nursing schools so students can complete clinical training there, turning the property into a place where care and workforce development overlap. Several early residents and staff members, described as pioneers of the community, attended the celebration, underscoring the loyalty that has helped the campus settle into Rio Rancho’s senior-care landscape.

The numbers behind the celebration show why the facility’s growth has local weight. Rio Rancho had 104,046 residents in the 2020 Census and an estimated 112,524 on July 1, 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About 17.6% of city residents were 65 or older. Sandoval County is older still, with about 32,700 residents age 65 and older in 2024, or 20.7% of the county population. In a city incorporated in 1981, that shift points to a maturing market where senior housing is no longer a niche but a core part of planning.

The Neighborhood sits in a corridor the city has studied for widening between Northern Boulevard and Paseo del Volcan NE, a reminder that growth pressure is visible on the ground as well as in the census numbers. It also arrives as Rio Rancho has already approved more senior housing nearby, including the 152-unit Casa de Encantada project in Enchanted Hills. Together, those developments show a city building out around an older population that increasingly wants to remain near the neighborhoods it helped create.