By Caitlin McGlade

Elizabeth Larson lives alone in her Athens home, but through Athens Village, a buddy-system-style community, she has access to visiting nurses and other services.

ATHENS, Ohio – Elizabeth Larson can’t see well enough to drive or read and relies on her peripheral vision to get around.

The 79-year-old lives alone in her Athens home – and she’s adamant about staying there.

“I don’t want to have to move to a retirement community, and I don’t want to move in with my children,” Larson said.

An idea spreading from the East Coast helps Larson maintain her independence. She and 78 other elderly Athens County residents have embraced the “village” concept: a bottom-up, buddy-system-style community that gives them access to reduced-cost visiting nurses, home maintenance and other services.

The point is to live at home as long as possible and steer clear of a nursing home, said Judy Willett, director of Beacon Hill Village in Boston, the nation’s first elderly village.

The services and programs offered by villages differ because priorities are set by their members, she added.

So far, 49 villages have cropped up in the United States during the past 21/2years and 80 to 100 more are in the works, Willett said.

Home-care aide Dina Horvath, center, brings lunch out to Howard Beebe and Jean Pullen. Beebe and Pullen get help at their Athens home through Athens Village.

Concepts such as the villages could be a lasting trend because they are cheaper for the health-care system and promote what aging baby boomers want – to maintain individuality, said John Ratliff, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Aging.

“We are an aging state,” Ratliff said, noting that 12,000 Ohioans turn 60 every month.

Ohio has villages in two counties, Athens and Hamilton.

The Bayley Place Be Connected Program in Cincinnati has 10 members who live at home and about 60 who live in a retirement community. Its organizers plan to begin marketing in January to attract more home-dwellers and to focus the village on independent living, said Kathy Baker, the outreach director.

The Athens Village, one of three in the county located in a mainly rural area, will celebrate its first birthday on Sept. 12.

“It’s a revolution,” said Patty Mercer, director of the Athens Village.

The group started with a few determined friends.

With no retirement community in the city offering a range of care from independent living to full nursing care, the group’s founders feared they would have nowhere to turn to as they aged, said Peggy Cohn, the village’s secretary.

“We decided if we didn’t have anything, we’d have to do it ourselves rather than waiting for someone to build it,” Cohn said.

Each member pays $400 a year to cover the salaries of two part-time staffers as well as mailing and printing expenses. The group negotiates discounts with home-care aides, maintenance crews, physical therapists and other medical providers.

The Athens Village is fueled by fellowship, said Ellsworth Holden, president and one of the founding members. Members act as a safety net and take care of each other. If a member can’t drive, for example, another member who is able to drive will step in and help, he said.

Mercer is starting up a formal buddy system so each member has another to check on regularly.

She also runs monthly lunches that feature speakers on a range of topics, from the deterioration of the brain to avoiding scams. The meetings also allow members to decide the village’s direction.

Keeping in touch with friends is a major draw for 85-year-old Carolyn Murphree.

“As you age, you watch your circle of friends get smaller and smaller,” she said. With her children scattered throughout the country and her husband gone, she said one hard fall could force her to move.

“This is the best insurance I can have at this point.”

RYDERWOOD, Wash. — This Southwest Washington community has long been reserved for 55-and-older retirees, but recent rulings by a federal court judge have imperiled that status – and worsened tensions in the tiny, unincorporated town.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma ruled in June that Ryderwood has violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against families with young children, and this month he issued an injunction ordering Ryderwood to stop enforcing the age restriction and to stop advertising itself as a 55-and-older community.

The Daily News of Longview reports that the rulings have contributed to a worsening rift in the 270-home town, located at the end of State Highway 506 in Cowlitz County.

The lawsuit was brought by about 50 residents who wanted to be able to sell their homes to anyone – not just to older people – and opponents of the age restriction say they’ve been harassed.

One plaintiff, Chuck Weaver, 68, said his tires have been slashed at least four times and he’s put up a fence to protect his property. Deborah Balvage said she’s been cursed at and threatened.

One plaintiffs’ supporter told the Cowlitz County sheriff’s office that a mutilated rabbit was hurled against his garage door in June and that another was thrown over his fence in retaliation for his views.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been threatened to be stabbed, murdered and taken out. It gets comical after a while,” Weaver said, adding that the town’s residents are battling simply because they’re bored and frustrated.

Ryderwood was started as a logging town in the 1920s so timber workers could live with their wives and children instead of in men-only camps deep in the woods. It was converted to an unincorporated retirement community in the mid-1950s.

Residents pay dues to the Ryderwood Improvement and Service Association, which denies breaking the law and claims that it meets federal requirements for an exception to the Fair Housing Act known as the Housing for Older Persons Act. The association has appealed Settle’s decision that it did not meet those requirements.

Weaver moved to Ryderwood from Olympia nearly five years ago because he wanted to live in a central location near his yacht, which is moored in Olympia, and Interstate 5, where he and his wife cruise in their RV. He said he quickly became bored and decided to leave, but confronted the age-restriction issue when he attempted to sell his home.

Association President Don Barnes said most people in Ryderwood can’t understand why Weaver and the others bought their homes knowing the community was reserved for people 55 and older.

He insisted complaints of harassment are invented or at least overblown.

“I don’t know of a single incidence where any of those people were harassed, intimidated or bullied,” he said.

Carole Stine, 73, who has lived in Ryderwood since 2003 and supports the association. She told the newspaper that the town’s residents shouldn’t have to “worry about being run over by kids on bicycles.”

“I love Ryderwood. I like my neighbors. I know that there’s always somebody who’s going to watch out for me. I know that if my blinds aren’t open at some point during the day, somebody will call,” she said. “You would not believe how generous residents are when there is a need.”

Yet, she told the newspaper, “There is an undercurrent in town. If we lose our case and lose our 55-and-older community, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

By Joshua Clark

An artist's rendering of Great Bay Commons by TMS Architects shows the facility from the base of the access road.

Following an unsuccessful two-year attempt to create a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Rye, Webster Continuing Care set its sights on the former campus on Route 33. The aim is to create a ground-breaking, multi-generational community that will serve not only the elderly but the entire Seacoast.

“The whole goal on doing the continuing care retirement community was discovering what people want and how can we continue and expand upon Webster’s mission in the Seacoast area,” said Janet Brown, chairwoman of Webster Continuing Care. “With this ground-breaking project we can set up a very synergistic environment allowing for the vibrancy, involvement and sense of community we were aspiring to provide.”

Based on market studies conducted over the past two years, Webster at Great Bay would feature about 160 independent living units and 60 health care units. The independent living units will consist of 120 apartments and 40 cottages. Setting the project apart from conventional retirement communities is the pioneering concept of an inter-generational campus.

Though no official deals are in place, Webster is working to finalize a cast of outside agencies and groups such as Exeter Health Resources, Seacoast Charter School and Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Club to provide various volunteer, inter-generational and cultural opportunities.

While the CCRC would be located at the back of the 91-acre property, the aforementioned entities would utilize the former college building at the front. The proposed CCRC would be connected to the main building and all uses would be integrated.

Seacoast Charter School, an arts-integrated public charter school serving students in grades 1 to 8 in Kingston, is looking to move to the Stratham campus. Headmaster Bill Wilmot said the school views this as a “tremendous opportunity for partnerships and synergies with those other partners. It will be an exciting possibility for our school.”

“We’re at the phase of seriously looking at this and seeing it as an exciting prospect for the school,” he said, “but we’re not at the phase where we’ve made a final commitment.”

Rick Holder, owner of the Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Club in Milford, said he is in the early stages of assessing the need and desire for a comprehensive fitness and wellness center on the Seacoast. Firm commitment to the project will depend on surveys assessing the demographic’s desire for such a facility, associated cost and a financing model that has to be decided, Holder said.

Holder said if he opens a fitness center on the campus, it wouldn’t necessarily be affiliated with Hampshire Hills, but it could be used as a model.

In looking to expand its coverage area, Exeter Health Resources, parent company of Exeter Hospital, is actively investigating setting up on-site medical offices catering to seniors living on campus and the greater public.

“What we’re exploring now is how pediatrics could fit in there, how adult medicine and family practice could fit in there, and what ancillaries like X-rays or lab could fit in there?” said Mark Whitney, vice president of strategy at Exeter Hospital. “Conceptually, we have some really interesting building blocks of what might work there and we’re continuing to refine those things.”

Exeter Health Resources is also pursuing a partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, which has a long-standing collaboration with the Kendal at Hanover CCRC in providing on-site care.

“They’ve done some interesting and very innovative things partnering with Kendal at Hanover,” Whitney said, “and we’re looking into how we could partner in a way that takes some of the lessons they’ve learned at Kendal at Hanover and apply them to the site here.”

Steve LeBlanc, vice president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, said it is unknown at this point if they’ll have direct participation at the facility or simply assist in coordinating planning and program design. “We’re very interested in helping to the extent that we can,” LeBlanc said, “but we haven’t really got to the point of making those kinds of plans and those are the things we want to discuss with all of the parties involved in the process.”

While adaptive reuse of the building and facilities will be targeted for an opening in the second half of 2011 following the finalization of the purchase-and-sales agreement, the retirement community may not open until 2014-15.

Stratham Town Administrator Paul Deschaine said the prospect of such a project is beneficial to the town on a number of levels including providing a CCRC for town residents so they don’t have to move to another town, city or state.

“The element of having another dynamic center where they’re very open to have community-wide programming and events over there with the mixed-use development in the front is a benefit for the town and its residents,” Deschaine said.

Preliminary plans are also in place to construct a pedestrian underpass connecting the campus to Stratham Hill Park and for COAST transit service to operate three bus routes from the campus.

Brown said as of yet it has not been determined what the legal status between the two facilities is going to be. “Zoning allows us to subdivide the property,” she said. “The CCRC could own the land and lease out to front property or vice versa.”

In anticipation of the July 2009 consolidation of the former New Hampshire Community Technical College’s Stratham and Portsmouth campuses, Stratham voters in March 2007 approved re-zoning the parcel for “flexible mixed use.” This allowed for private purchase and subsequent tax revenue for Stratham. Before the March 2007 vote, the land was zoned “residential agricultural institutional,” which left the state-owned land open to state or federal use that would not produce property tax revenue for the town.

Allowed uses of the property are senior multi-family housing, congregate care facilities, adult, family or child-care facilities, educational facilities, and medical facilities.

Webster entered into discussions with Great Bay Community College in June 2007 and for the next year Webster surveyed the property, conducted wetlands mapping, test pits, a traffic study, appraisal and environmental study. In July 2008, Webster signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with a closing date no later than June 30, 2010. The date was subsequently extended to 2011.

Even with Webster at Great Bay being owned by a nonprofit entity, it will pay property taxes to the town. Based on other nonprofit retirement communities in New Hampshire, the expectation is for property taxes to be in excess of $500,000 a year, Brown said.

“Returning a non-taxable property to a taxable property and avoiding any other undesirable use that may have come along if the state were to attain ownership and use to the state’s interest and not necessarily that of the community are certainly benefits to the town,” Deschaine said.

By Tom Lauricella

As the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the recession linger, there are more reminders of the care retirees should take when choosing to move into a continuing-care retirement community.

CCRCs provide a range of housing aimed at enabling seniors to “age in place.” They usually offer independent living, assisted living and nursing care and allow residents to move from one stage to the next as they age.

But some retirement communities took a direct hit from the collapse of the real-estate market. Most notably, Erickson Retirement Communities, a developer of 20 CCRCs in 10 states, filed for bankruptcy last year.

Now, Congress’s Government Accountability Office has weighed in on CCRCs. Its report, prepared for the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, provides an overview of the financial difficulties CCRCs continue to face, the challenges in finding information on the financial soundness of CCRCs and gaping holes in state oversight.

The report highlights just how much more complex evaulating a CCRC can be than buying a house or even choosing a stand-alone nursing home.

Multi-Pronged Appeal

The appeal of CCRCs is easy to see. They can help remove the tremendous uncertainty that can accompany late-in-life living decisions. For couples, they can make it easier for spouses to live in close proximity should the health of one deteriorate much faster than the other’s. Other family members know they won’t have to engage in a frantic search for a nursing home should a loved one suffer a sudden illness.

But that promise of providing a place to live and health care for the remainder of residents’ lives is costly for CCRCs. And, as the GAO report and a parallel report from the Special Committee on Aging make clear, many CCRCs engage in a difficult financial balancing act to meet those obligations.

CCRCs fund their operations either through big entrance fees, which the GAO said could range from $160,000 to $600,000, or ongoing monthly payments—or a combination of both. Many newer communities also need to repay construction loans.

To accomplish that, CCRCs usually rely on the revenue from younger residents in independent living to cover the costs of older residents. In addition, their finances usually assume high occupancy rates.

‘Vulnerable’ in a Downturn

The GAO report summed up the risk in this structure: CCRCs are “particularly vulnerable during economic downturns, as stagnant real-estate markets drive down occupancy levels in independent living units, which serve as CCRCs’ primary source of profit.” The decline in home prices has made it much harder for seniors to raise money for big entrance fees by selling their homes.

Meanwhile, the report from the Special Committee on Aging took a close look at five CCRCs (which it didn’t name). It found “all five…are either experiencing cash-flow problems, struggling with debt, or both.”

Financial woes can flow through to residents, usually as higher fees to cover anything from meals to transportation. This has been a particular challenge for some CCRC residents in the past year when there was no cost-of-living increase in Social Security payments.

Bankruptcies have historically been rare but do occur, as do outright closures. The GAO report pointed to a California CCRC with consistently low occupancy rates. After losing $11 million over 10 years, the CCRC shut down and residents were ultimately forced to move.

Other Pitfalls

Both reports highlight other pitfalls for potential CCRC residents, such as unclear or severe restrictions on the refundability of entrance deposits should a resident decide to move.

Some problems are laid at the feet of state regulators responsible for oversight of CCRCs. The reports note some states have bare-bones requirements for CCRCs to provide information about their financial health. Some states don’t require CCRCs to provide a complete list of fees residents are required to pay. In fact, a dozen states don’t have any CCRC-specific rules.

All this isn’t to say that CCRCs are a bad idea—but rather to take seriously the homework that needs to be done before moving into a community that you’ll be depending on to take care of you for the rest of your life. That includes having all documents reviewed by attorneys and a financial expert—such as an accountant—familiar with CCRCs.

Meanwhile, the GAO and Special Committee on Aging reports are worthwhile reading for anyone weighing CCRCs. (A word of warning: Some sections weren’t aimed at a general audience. Part of the GAO report is aimed at prodding state regulators to step up their oversight.)

Both reports can be found at aging.senate.gov/pressroom.cfm by scrolling down and clicking on the link for the press release on the financial stability of CCRCs. The report from the Special Committee includes a helpful list of resources for potential CCRC residents.

By Philip Moeller

There were no formalized retirement communities 50 years ago. But on New Year’s Day of 1960, Del Webb invited the public to take a look at his new Sun City complex outside of Phoenix. According to company history, Webb wasn’t sure how many people would show up. But when he tried to drive to the event, he found the roads so clogged he was forced to hire a helicopter to make it into Sun City. The official tally would later show that more than 100,000 people had turned out to see his vision of a retirement community.

Del Webb died in 1974 and his company is now a division of Pulte Homes. There are numerous Sun Cities across the country. The original Sun City has gone through a major life cycle transition during its 50 years. Its explosive growth led to thousands of homes and turned the area first into a national model and, later, into a stereotype of undesirable retirement living, much like Leavittown had become when that early pioneer of tract homes opened in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s. Today, more than 48,000 people live in Sun City, but the focus of the complex and of senior communities in general reflect how much the concept of retirement has changed in the past 50 years.

“In 1960, the typical buyer in Sun City was a married couple,” says company spokesperson Jacque Petroulakis. “The wife typically had never worked. They were retired. They didn’t work anymore. . . . Think of today’s demographics compared with 1960,” she continues. “People are working longer, and both people [in a couple] are working. . . . Half the people in our communities are working today versus 1 or 2 percent in 1960.”

Webb focuses on the 50-plus market, and its communities have been pushing a youth movement for some time. Physical fitness facilities have expanded along with group learning and cultural activities. The homes themselves have become steadily larger over time, although a move back to smaller homes has emerged since the national recession and housing meltdown.

And beyond Webb, senior communities have mushroomed over the years. In addition to the active lifestyle communities of Webb and 55-plus developments, retirement communities have sprung up for older residents as well. While nursing homes still house millions of older Americans, most occupants are infirm and unable to live independently. Meanwhile, improvements in health and longevity have created a generation of very healthy and active people in their 70s and 80s.

For healthy seniors with financial resources, continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) and other unassisted living facilities have grown into a sizable industry. But with average ages of new residents in their early 80s, these complexes are also looking for younger residents. A challenge for many communities is that people are staying active and healthy into much later ages. The continuing care features of CCRCs are not such a strong draw for this group.

The retirement label is not popular, either, these days. And another consistent change involves the movement of the senior housing industry away from sameness to variety. “In 1960 it was easy to generalize about what consumers wanted,” Petroulakis says. “Today, the group is just way too diverse to generalize.”

Almost since the first cookie-cutter living units started popping up in senior housing complexes around the country, developers have been striving to find cost-effective ways to create unique housing and living experiences. In recent years, the trend has extended to dining plans. Where one daily meal used to be a standard fixture of many senior facilities, a la carte dining has emerged as a popular way of letting residents tailor their own dining experiences.

Different residential living agreements have also proliferated during the recession, as communities tried to expand ways in which their offerings were attractive to prospective residents. Today, consumers can choose from many living and care plans.

By Christopher Ramirez, Staff Writer

Work has already begun on the Village at St. Peter's senior housing project on the Black Horse Pike in Pleasantville. Photo by: Danny Drake

The life of Anna Tosti is deeply intertwined with St. Peter Catholic Church.

It’s where her parents married and where she was baptized, it and stands across from her childhood home along the Black Horse Pike near Main Street.

Tosti is now watching a rebirth of the land where a church parish was active for more a century until an official merger was completed in May with nearby St. Bernadette’s in Northfield.

Construction is already a few weeks under way in the massive makeover to the property that will result in the Village at St. Peter’s, a senior housing complex spearheaded by the Diocese of Camden for those ages 62 and older.

The approximately $17 million project is utilizing about 14,000 square feet along the road for a six-story building that will include 73 one-bedroom units and a two-bedroom unit for an onsite manager. The foundation of the new building is beginning to emerge on the site of the former convent, besides a bell tower and small grass courtyard that leads to the church and school that will remain standing.

The progress, after years of planning and overcoming financing difficulties related to the economic downturn, is thrilling for Tosti.

“The church is closed, but it’s reopening as this wonderful center for our seniors,” Tosti said.

She has worked for the diocese for 31 years at Our Lady’s Multi-Care Center, which is located a short distance away on Clematis Avenue, and has joined the new effort at her old church as the board president of the Village of St. Peter’s.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in the grass courtyard Thursday morning and included the presence of Bishop Joseph Galante and officials from the state, county and municipal levels.

“This is a compliment to the neighborhood, the city and our seniors,” Mayor Jesse Tweedle said.

Offering affordable residences is a priority for the dioceses, which already operates six similar complexes with about a total of 1,000 residents in southern New Jersey.

“Affordable housing comes under the mission of the diocese,” said Curtis Johnson, executive director of the Diocesan Housing Services Corporation.

The project is benefiting from $10.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which also factors into low rent costs.

Residents will need to pay only about $250 to $300 for a 540-square-foot unit that includes a kitchen, living room, bedroom and walk-in closet.

“We’re not going to put them in a closet,” Johnson said. “We’re going to give them a full service apartment with a kitchen and everything.”

In addition to being 62 or older, prospective resident will need to fill out an application and then be entered into a lottery to be chosen.

However, that process won’t start for some time given that construction isn’t expected to be complete until fall 2011.

By Brittany Wright

A study analyzed 14 online communities directed at older adults to find why “silver surfers” participate online and what benefits they receive by doing so.

For many older adults, having thriving social networks and relationships is a significant contributor to their well-being and quality of life. Unfortunately, maintaining connections necessary to sustain or develop social interactions has not always been possible for those in their later years.  In today’s technological era, however, the Internet provides those at all life stages and walks opportunities to learn, grow, and connect.

Results of the analyses concluded that these specific Internet communities allowed individuals many chances for involvement and enjoyment. Older adults employed the Internet to communicate without being inhibited by geography or transportation, to find social support, to partake in leisurely activities, and to become informed on numerous topics.  Most important, the online communities allowed participants opportunities for self-preservation, self-discovery, and growth.

An individual’s well-being is greatly dependent upon his/her relationships.  Fortunately, with social connections, interactions, and networks being available at the click of a button, the Internet can act to sustain or improve the well-being of older adults despite limitations that may come with age.

Source: Nimrod, G. 2010.  Seniors’ Online Communities: A Quantitative Content Analysis.  The Gerontologist  50.3: 382-392.

The attempts of city planning officials and developers of the proposed Borthwick Village to create a continuing care retirement community provision in the zoning ordinance are getting harder to support.

The project increasingly deserves the metaphor of peeling back layers of an onion.

A CCRC concept in the city is valuable. The city and region need additional housing options for our older citizens. We all know about aging baby boomers and how they will impact life in America. According to the developers, the proposed Borthwick Village could deliver significant property taxes with less demand on services than an office building. However, concerns of spot zoning were present late last year and that is more true now with the latest report that density limitations for the Borthwick Avenue site were crafted specifically with the proposal in mind.

It is hard to recall in recent or long-term history a project and a zoning amendment process handled as questionably as this. So while the concept of a CCRC deserves support, the process the city has taken up to now doesn’t.

It is hard to support a senior-living center for 400 residents when city officials determined that number as appropriate based on what the developers need to make the project financially viable. Planning officials should have looked at CCRCs around the region and nationally. This should have been transparent so the pros and cons of Borthwick Village’s proposed size could have been appropriately debated.

There is little assurance in the suggestion that density limitations currently set for the proposed Borthwick Village are comparable to the Islington Street corridor. It is hard to imagine a developer with a large tract of land could build a modern neighborhood with a density similar to that of Islington Street. It seems implausible that a hypothetical developer could build a modern Elwyn Park or any other neighborhood with similar densities. Any such plan would face widespread concerns over the impact on traffic, sprawl, school enrollments, police and fire and so on.

What would happen if a developer wanted to build a four-story apartment building for 400 residents in the way of work force housing? Would our planning officials set density limitations as equally favorable to the developer? Is there any concern the proposed density limitations could set a dangerous precedent for other housing proposals?

Why shouldn’t Borthwick Village face the same scrutiny? One answer may be the unique way this whole zoning amendment process has been handled. Some city councilors say they have difficulty separating the zoning provision from the specific project. Somewhere in this process there should have been a forceful attempt to separate the two efforts. However, setting density limitations to meet the developers’ proposal is just another fouling of the process that makes this separation nearly impossible.

The only correct thing the city can do, and what it should have done a year ago, is to develop the CCRC provision in near total separation from the Borthwick Village proposal. It should not matter if the final provision makes Borthwick Village a non-starter. The only thing that should matter is creating a CCRC provision in a way that best serves the city as a whole while allowing this sound concept in general to be possible in Portsmouth.

by Elaine Trumpey, The Enquirer

Otterbein team members greet guests at Maineville Avalon dedication.

Avalon by Otterbein at Maineville is getting ready to open its doors to new residents. Otterbein Retirement Communities has completed work on its third Warren County small house neighborhood.

An official dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Aug. 10 at the residential community of five houses at 201 Marge Schott Way in Hamilton Township. The cluster of homes will offer its residents a home-like setting with available on-site skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services as needed.

“What we are doing is revolutionary,” said Jill C. Hreben, president and CEO of Otterbein Homes. “Research shows that residents are more satisfied and have better outcomes in a small-house environment.”

The Marge and Charles J. Schott Foundation helped make the Avalon by Otterbein neighborhood possible with a donation of $1 million.

The rooftop deck at LaGrange Point in La Grange provides residents with all the best of a backyard patio without the maintenance.

Myth: Senior communities have an institutional look and feel.

Mythbuster: Step inside The Mather, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in downtown Evanston, and you’ll swear you’ve entered a chic boutique hotel. The interior of the stately stone building, which opened last year, was designed with an eye toward detail. “We tried to establish a classic, yet modern look with cool fireplaces, a sophisticated palette, warm colors and comfortable furniture,”says Sara McVey, experience director at Mather Lifeways. “Everything in there has a story behind it, like the clever lighting, interesting wall hangings and art. It was designed to be conversational. Even the furniture is not what you typically see in senior communities.”

Myth: Senior living means living in rental units that you can’t customize or upgrade.

Mythbuster: Bowes Country Club in Elgin, has active adult (55+) townhomes and single-family ranches or two-story homes. Buyers can choose from three townhome floor plans and nine house floor plans. “Sometimes people feel like active adult communities are monotonous, but this has the feel of a semi-custom community,”says sales manager Kim Grant. Buyers can customize their home at the design center in Schaumburg. “A lot of upgrades are not necessary because we include granite countertops and hardwood flooring, crown molding and vaulted ceilings,”Grant says.

Myth: Senior communities are full of old people sitting around.

Mythbuster: Sara McVey, experience director at The Mather, jokes that the only sitting she sees at The Mather takes place during chair volleyball games, which are played with a beach ball while sitting in chairs. “Families come in for it on Saturday afternoons, it’s so hilarious. They all love it,”she says. “We also put in a ping-pong table on request. One of the men said he would teach people how to play and now he gives one-on-one lessons.”Residents did sit recently when the Chicago Philharmonic played a concert there on June 23. “We had to give our residents a lot of notice because they’re so busy,”she says.

Myth: Senior communities are built in isolated locations where you need a car to get around.

Mythbuster: Two new developments, La Grange Pointe and Elmhurst Pointe, are independent senior living communities. They are part of the new mixed-use development trend in suburban downtowns. “Our residents don’t want to go to some remote community, they want to be part of the community,”says Linda Kunicki, marketing director at La Grange Pointe. “We attract a unique niche of seniors who want to live someplace where they can easily walk.”There is plenty to walk to: dining, a library, art galleries, boutiques, coffee shops, a movie theater, and grocery store are within walking distance in La Grange, and Elmhurst is similar.

Myth: Senior communities have bland, uninteresting food.

Mythbuster: “Our chefs have jumped on the bandwagon of the sustainability movement,”says Frank Wehr, chief operating officer of Rittenhouse Senior Living. “They buy locally grown produce including Michigan asparagus and cherries. We change our menus seasonally to accommodate this effort and our residents’ tastes for lighter foods in the warmer months and heartier meals in the colder months. In our Michigan City community, Chef Derrick hosts cookouts for our residents who crave the taste of a grilled chicken and burgers. In our Valparaiso community, we offer two homemade soups a day, and the bread made from scratch on site has become a resident favorite. We actually grow things residents request and incorporate it into the meals, such as seasonings from an herb garden or tomatoes or summer vegetables. We even invite residents to offer their own recipes.”

Myth: Senior communities don’t fit into the community at large.

Mythbuster: They not only fit in, they get awards for doing so. Rittenhouse Senior Living of Valparaiso, Ind., recently accepted a local Community Improvement Award for its new senior campus. “Our building was designed to fit in with the local community and has beautiful grounds and courtyards,”says Frank Wehr, chief operating officer. “Linking with the communities is very important to us. They liked the campus feel, and how it fits into the neighborhood.”

Myth: Senior communities are only for the retirement years.

Mythbuster: At the four Del Webb active adult communities in the Chicago area, as many as 50 percent of residents are still working, says Chris Naatz, Midwest director of marketing at Pulte Group. “The phrase ‘active adult’ was born to dispel the myth that these communities embody the traditional idea of retirement. They represent everything that active means: sports, book clubs, continuous learning, philanthropy and volunteering. We’re going to continue to be trendsetters because our residents are changing all the time, especially as the Baby Boomers enter this market.”

Myth: It’s hard to fit into a new community.

Mythbuster: “People often relate stories about moving to a Del Webb and meeting friends who make it seem like they’ve been there forever,”says Chris Naatz of Pulte Group. “I liken it to the first day of college. People are excited to meet others who are at the same stage of life. Even if they’re still working, when they come home, they want to have fun and connect.”

Myth: Senior communities are too expensive.

Mythbuster: Rittenhouse Senior Living has three locations in Northwest Indiana: Valparaiso, Michigan City and Portage (opening this fall) featuring independent and assisted living. Independent living starts at approximately $1,500 a month; $2,000 a month for assisted living and $3,000 if memory care is required. There are no entrance fees. “Our prices are all-inclusive, with meals, utilities, rent, etc.,”says Katie Csobaji, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “It’s probably the same price as living in a house.” At Bowes Creek, the active adult townhomes start in the low $200,000s the single-family homes in the mid-$200,000s. Monthly association dues are $210 for townhomes and $121 for single-family homes. That includes maintenance, snow removal, and a private active adult clubhouse with a pool, tennis courts and organized activities.

Myth: Senior communities separate seniors from the rest of the population.

Mythbuster: Bowes Creek Country Club in Elgin is a master planned 616-acre community for all ages that includes a country club, plus a golf course and restaurant that are open to the public. Several hundred active adult (55+) homes are a part of this. “It does feel like an average community, since there is something for everyone of all ages,”says Kim Grant, sales manager. “It’s a more comfortable feel for some people.”

At La Grange Pointe, “Our in-town setting provides a built-in intergenerational community,”says Kunicki. “In lieu of a dining room, residents eat at a restaurant at street level called Prasino, to which they have a private entrance. They also get discounts at local restaurants.”