New Senior Housing Projects Put the Gold in Golden Years

Some of the biggest names in senior living--and some of the most posh accommodations--are coming to the San Fernando Valley.

Starting this spring and continuing into spring 2003, at least five new assisted-living communities, with such amenities as putting greens, ice cream parlors, weekly housekeeping and communal dining, are expected to open.

Although such communities have thrived in Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties, operators of existing retirement homes--many of which have been in operation, in one form or another, for decades--wonder if the Valley’s elderly population will prove affluent enough to support such housing.

Assisted-living facilities provide residents with their own bedrooms or apartments, either private or shared with another person. There’s a monthly flat fee that covers rent plus all meals in a communal dining room, housekeeping, local transportation in the facility’s van or bus, and a slate of activities, such as musical performances, movie viewings, group outings and bingo and card games.

There are additional fees for staff help with such tasks as dressing, bathing or taking medication. Depending on the facility, such fees can add up quickly, even double the monthly fee.

Over the last decade, assisted living has become a popular alternative for elderly people who are too healthy for nursing homes, but who either desire the companionship of a community or are too frail to live on their own.

Such assistance and amenities come at a cost. The flat fee for a private room in an assisted-living community in California generally runs between $2,500 and $4,000 a month, with high-end accommodations topping out at about $6,000 a month, said Rick Sakamoto, executive vice president of California Registry, a licensed referral agency that matches seniors with residences.

Until now, the Valley’s homes have tended to run a little cheaper--many from $1,500 to $3,000 a month--primarily because most facilities are at least 10 years old.

On the low end, Ambassador Garden in Reseda provides shared rooms for under $800 a month. At the high end, the Jewish Homes for the Aging, with a 10-acre and a seven-acre campus in Reseda, charges $4,050 for a private apartment with a bedroom, living room and bathroom. That fee also covers most assistance a resident might need with daily tasks.

Newer facilities, on the other hand, tend to charge more, in part because they can offer extras the older communities were never designed to accommodate. Four of the five upcoming assisted-living communities are planned for the northwest Valley:

* Sunrise Assisted Living Inc. of McLean, Va., one of the industry’s 10 largest publicly traded companies, plans to break ground within the month on Sunrise of Topanga. Located about three miles north of Topanga Plaza shopping center, the 65-bed facility is slated to open in December.

* Leisure Care Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., plans to open Fairwinds-West Hills near Roscoe Boulevard and Woodlake Avenue this spring. The 115-unit facility includes independent-living apartments for more active residents and assisted-living units for those who need more help with daily tasks.

* In Chatsworth, Villa Siena is scheduled to open within two years. Developed by Del Mar-based Homeplace Retirement Communities of America Inc., the 8.2-acre site will include 324 independent-living apartments, and a roughly 100-bed assisted-living and skilled-nursing facility next to the apartment complex.

* Marriott International Inc. is under construction on Brighton Gardens at Northridge, scheduled to open in September. With 90 assisted-living units, 25 units for residents with dementia and 45 skilled-nursing beds, Brighton Gardens will be what is known as a “continuing care community.”

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The fifth community is being built in Sherman Oaks, where San Diego-based Senior Resources Group has begun construction on the Village at Sherman Oaks. Slated to open this winter, it will feature 249 apartments, about 80% of which will be independent-living units, and the rest will be assisted-living accommodations.

The new facilities will feature lavish touches not generally available in older communities, from an ice cream parlor and fresh flower arrangements at Sunrise, a spa room at Fairwinds, a putting green and indoor pool at Villa Siena, a complimentary snack room on each floor at Brighton Gardens and an Internet cafe and grocery story at the Village at Sherman Oaks.

They also come with higher price tags. Residents at Villa Siena will pay about $200,000 to move in, half of which the owners say will be refundable when the resident moves or after he or she dies, and monthly maintenance fees ranging from $1,950 to $2,750 a month.

The other four communities will run from about $2,600 a month for an assisted-living studio apartment to as high as $5,000 a month or more for deluxe accommodations combined with various levels of personal care.

Operators of existing facilities wonder if the market exists for such high-priced offerings. The Valley’s elderly population, many of whom moved here decades ago when homes were much more affordable, is “pretty middle class,” noted Muriel DeJesus, administrator and marketing director of Ambassador Garden.

Phil Downey of Marriott Senior Living Services disagrees. His Washington, D.C.-based company did demographic studies before breaking ground on its Northridge facility and discovered an affluent, underserved population in the Valley, he said.

“The Valley is more densely settled and more economically diverse than, say, Orange County,” said Downey, vice president of planning and government affairs. “But our studies don’t indicate that the upper-middle class market is less extensive in the Valley.”

Even those Valley residents who aren’t flush in cash have considerable equity in their homes, he said. That, in fact, is the source Villa Siena is counting on to pay for its sizable entrance fee, said Stephen L. Taylor, chairman and chief executive of Homeplace Retirement.

“[Villa Siena] is not just aimed at rich people,” he said. “It is aimed at people who’ve owned their homes.”

The Valley market will be more competitive, but existing homes will have at least one advantage, said Bernard Rosenson, president and chief executive of Sign of the Dove, a local company with eight facilities in Southern California, including Topanga Park in Canoga Park and Capri Retirement Villa in Newhall.

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“All these facilities are being built at today’s cost,” he said. “They’ll be state of the art, no doubt. But whoever moves in there is going to have to pay the mortgage. If we can stay progressive and innovative, then we can compete even though they have the latest bells and whistles. We have prices that are affordable.”