New assisted living facility adds to regional inventory
Developers have their sights on a spring debut for a 165,000-square-foot senior and assisted living community that is taking form in Shelton.
For the past year, Maryland-based Brightview Senior Living Facility has been building its second Connecticut facility on Beard Sawmill Road, which will add 161 units of senior housing to the city by midJune.
The four-story complex, which is visible from Route 8, is joining Brightview’s Norwalk community and several other developments meeting the rising demand for housing for the area’s aging population.
“Everybody is projecting that the senior population is growing exponentially, there is a lot of building in the exact area,” said Terry Jackson, executive director of the Brightview Shelton. “Our target markets and our demographics of depositors and interest is definitely geographically becoming a smaller circle, but there are more and more people.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 575,000 Connecticut residents were age 65 and older in 2016, making up roughly 16 percent of the population. That’s a three percentage point increase from 2000, when about 13 percent of people in the state were 65 and older.
Brightview operates 36 facilities in the Northeast from Virginia to Massachusetts. The privately owned company opened its first Connecticut facility in Norwalk in 2016.
The addition of Brightview’s new Shelton facility aligns with a growing number of senior and assisted living companies making their way to Fairfield County.
Connecticut-based Maplewood Senior Living is also expected to debut its new 93,000-square-foot facility in Fairfield in the spring, making seven locations statewide. The company has locations in Bethel, Darien, East Norwalk, Newtown and Orange while also expanding into Massachusetts, New York and Ohio.
Like Brightview, the state also attracted developers from beyond state lines like Benchmark Senior Living of Massachusetts, which just added 88 units of housing in Fairfield this fall.
Leasing of Brightview Shelton’s units has been ongoing since June and the new facility has already received more than 290 applications, Jackson said.
Roughly 90 percent of the applications, according to Jackson, have been from seniors looking for independent housing.
“That market segment has clearly raised their hand,” Jackson said. “That independent living marketplace is definitely feeling like they’ve been ignored.”
The facility will have 87 independent living units, 48 assisted living units and 26 memory care apartments for people with dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The building will be three to four stories, have both one- and two-bedroom units, outdoor courtyards, 125 parking spaces and one driveway on Beard Sawmill Road. The building’s farmhouse-type architectural design is intended to reflect the location, formerly part of the neighboring farm.
The community also features a dining room, pub and café, as well as other leisure and recreation amenities.
“There is a huge commitment to having our residents lead as vibrant lives as possible and getting them out to activities on the independent living side,” Jackson said.