Area senior communities looking to attract boomers
WARMINSTER, PA. » In her semi-retirement, Pat Kidd enjoys tennis every other day, plus daily trips to the gym and jet-setting around the world.
And while the Medford Leas Lumberton campus in South Jersey is far from her plans to retire to Mexico, Kidd says she’s found the active senior lifestyle she’s always wanted.
“The expectation of my parents’ generation was that you would live to your late 70s, maybe 80s, if you were lucky,” said Kidd, 65, who still works part time. “Now, I expect to be around to 100. It paints a very different picture than my parents’ generation would have seen.”
With more than 76 million American children born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers like Kidd pose a tremendous opportunity for continuing care retirement communities like Medford Leas, which provide a continuum of care that ranges from independent living to nursing care. Yet, attracting this future generation of residents requires a shift in thinking away from the standard amenities, according to those who operate these communities.
“The boomers are the generation of customization,” said Dan Dunne, of Erickson Living, which owns 19 senior living communities throughout the country, including Ann’s Choice in Warminster. “They are the ones that have been living that lifestyle.”
Even though 85 percent of boomers surveyed recently by Realtor.com say they have no intention of leaving their current homes in the next year — and only 7 percent of qualified seniors move into continuing care retirement communities — the coming wave of boomers represents a huge potential to become future residents, community operators say.
“(Boomers) are absolutely coming,” said Cindy Longfellow, vice president of business development, sales and marketing at Juniper Communities LLC, which owns Juniper Village in Bensalem and other senior developments in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorado and Florida.
“I’m a boomer myself,” she added. “Our tastes and desires are quite different than the group of seniors 85 and up that are in our buildings. The trend industry-wide is in response to that coming age, and a desire to begin to attract those older boomers.”
The concept of the continuing care retirement communities has been around for more than a century, with roots in religious organizations that sought to provide care for aging members. The industry exploded during the 1970s, and again during the 1990s; today, there are roughly 1,900 such communities nationwide, according to the American Senior Housing Association. The average residents are in their 80s.
Such communities attract people by offering them an array of independent living options — from apartments to townhouses — and promising assisted living or nursing home care as they age. They offer a variety of contracts, from prepaying for needed care (the most expensive option) to fee-forservice models, where residents pay only for what they need as they need it. Entry fees range from $20,000 to $500,000 or more, depending on home prices and the services seniors want, according to the housing association.
While long-term health care is a primary selling point for these communities, boomers first and foremost want to continue their active lifestyles, industry experts said.
“In the back of the average prospect’s mind, it’s very much a health caredriven decision,” said Tom Mann, principal at Love & Co., a Maryland marketing and consulting firm that works with senior living communities. “But on the front side, I want to be able to almost sell myself that that (health) isn’t the driver. I want the sexy swimming pool and fitness center and restaurants. All the other stuff is what makes the steak sizzle.”