New South Florida resort-style developments for retirees are defying somber notions of senior housing.
For example, a nine-story assisted-living facility for senior citizens is under construction in Fort Lauderdale on a waterfront site where Oakland Park Boulevard crosses the Intracoastal Waterway.
“We think it’s a great location, with water views from the third floor up to the ninth floor. We think it will add more amenities for seniors like great views, dining on the ninth floor, ocean views,” said Ken Assiran, founding partner and managing principal of Capital Health Group, a private equity firm in Baltimore, Maryland that is developing the nine-story residence.
“It will be a senior assisted-living facility and a memory-care facility for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s,” Assiran told The Real Deal in an interview. Nevertheless, “we’re trying to create a fun environment.”
Construction is expected to be completed in June 2016.
Luxury residences for senior citizens tend to be built for a mix of independent living and continuing care.
Consider the range of options at Sinai Residences, an age-in-place luxury condo development for senior citizens who want a stylish independent-living unit but later may need an assisted-living or a memory-care unit, or skilled nursing and rehabilitation.
Buyers have reserved all of the 237 independent-living units at Sinai Residences, and the resort-style residence is expected to open in January. Construction work is more than 70 percent complete at the site west of Boca Raton on the campus of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, the owner of the development.
Hardly a one-size-fits-all project, Sinai Residences features 21 different floor plans for one- and two-bedroom apartments, many of them with a terrace or balcony. Services available at Sinai Residences will include dining and catering, health education and recreation programs.
Farther north in Palm Beach County, Big Rock Partners has started construction of a 318-unit luxury rental project for seniors near Lake Worth called Atria at Villages of Windsor, with a landscaped swimming pool serving as its architectural centerpiece.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Beverly Hills, California-based Big Rock Partners is investing $100 million in the Atria development on 22.5 acres at Lyons Road and Hypoluxo Road. It is expected to open in early 2017.
Residents of the resort-style Atria community will pay about $5,000 a month, which covers food service, nursing care, insurance and electricity, plus access to a theater, fitness center, swimming pool, salon and game rooms.
Atria at Villages of Windsor will have 186 independent-living apartments and 78 assisted-living apartments. A separate memory-care building will have 54 one- and two-bedroom apartments for residents with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses that impair memory.
Richard Ackerman, senior managing principal of Big Rock Partners, told the Palm Beach Post that many people who retired to Palm Beach County in their 60s are now in their 70s and 80s, and they need more specialized housing but want to remain in the county, close to their friends and neighbors.