denvertomorrow.com Blog » Older Adults

MorningStar Senior Living shows assisted living concept that’s long on amenities

Administrator — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:13:21 +0000

When senior housing exec Ken Jaeger was working his way up through the retirement-living industry, he began imagining a better way to handle the decisions families make when parents move beyond the point of living alone. “Daughters were always telling us, ‘I want Mom to be safe and secure,’” Jaeger recalls; “but mom would say, ‘I want to be independent.’”

Ken Jaeger and Katie Yoho of MorningStar Senior Living join residents Marian Hoskinson (left), Dorothy Kinsley and Betty Peters, outside their community in Applewood.
You can come see how Jaeger’s company, MorningStar Senior Living, puts those opposites together at his newest assisted living community in Applewood — easily the most appealing-looking of its kind you’ve ever seen — a couple of blocks south of I-70 at W. 32nd on Youngfield. You’ll find an open house today with refreshments and giveaways, as well as at four other locations in Denver, Littleton and Greenwood Village.

Applewood was completed last year – fulfilling Jaeger’s idea of an assisted living concept that would “remind you of grandmother’s house.” “When I visited other places, it struck me that all of the amenities you see in independent living communities were always absent in assisted living.” So Applewood is long on those: the neighborhood’s pretty Chester-Portsmouth Park, tucked next door with trails that interconnect; and a 24-hour ‘Bistro’ with coffee, cookies, and fresh popcorn right off the dining area.

MorningStar created an “outdoor living area” with barbecue and eat-outdoors seating; a formal dining room you can reserve for family events; living room with fireplace; and restaurant style dining that includes a menu and executive chef-prepared meals three times a day. “Residents really do want the social option,” says MorningStar Regional Marketing Director Katie Yoho, noting that people have often lived alone for years before they arrive. MorningStar created a country store, movie theater, beauty salon, library with computer stations and other places to intermingle; and designs its rooms (you can see 1-and-2 bedroom models) for privacy, but for safety and ease of care, as well.

MorningStar (they’re offering a month’s-rent free as part of the open house) also offers memory care, not only at Applewood, but also at their Dayton Place and Littleton locations. Dayton Place also offers independent living and a new line of Cottages for active seniors, complete with health club, swimming pool and dining. Cottages range up to 1,750 square feet, plus a 2-car attached garage.
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If you go…

WHERE: MorningStar Assisted Living at Applewood, 4 other locations. 2800 Youngfield, Lakewood; exit I-70 at Youngfield, south on Youngfield, 0.4 mi. Also, MorningStar of Littleton, 5344 S. Kipling, between Bowles and Belleview; Dayton Place, 1950 S. Dayton St, Denver at corner of Parker Rd.; Cranbook Assisted Living 5565 S. Yosemite, Greenwood Village so. of Belleview on Yosemite

WHEN: Daily 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
PHONE: 303-233-4343 WEB: MorningStarSeniorLiving.com

Heritage Eagle Bend, 10 years old and skewing younger, holds open 28 homes

Administrator — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:52:53 +0000

Heritage Eagle Bend, on the Arthur Hills golf course off E-470 at Gartrell Road, is celebrating its 10th anniversary…a retirement community that may be getting younger now rather than older. Six months ago the community changed its minimum age from 50 to 45 years (spouses can be younger), and already has six new owners that have joined within that more youthful niche.
General Manager Jeff Powles joins agents Barb Nelson of Cherry Creek Properties and Gwen Arnold of Re/Max Masters at Heritage Eagle Bend’s clubhouse.

Sunday, May 2, you can celebrate with residents at Heritage Eagle Bend’s Open House, featuring 28 homes on the re-sale market (the last new homes sold out two years ago). The tour is free; there are drawings for dinner and golf giveaways. Visit five homes and you’ll qualify for free appetizers and two-fers at the clubhouse’s Eagles Nest bar, a chance to kick back and talk with residents about how they like their lifestyle.

Getting Eagle Bend residents to talk is no difficult task, says Realtor Gwen Arnold of Re/Max Masters, who along with Barb Nelson of Cherry Creek Properties arranged the event. “A lot of people are relocating to be near grandkids,” Arnold adds. “They often don’t have friends in the area, and the residents make it easier.”
Jeff Powles, General Manager with Hammersmith Management, says residents have formed 30 clubs from out of their 35,000-square-foot clubhouse overlooking the 10th fairway, ranging from tennis, to guns, to fishing, to bocce ball, and of course, golf. (Just $2,100 buys an annual pass onto the course…but over half of residents don’t play).
Golfer or not, organizers say, everybody tends toward the gregarious…particularly the ‘Angels.’ “They’re a combination Welcome Wagon and Salvation Army,” Powles notes…greeting new arrivals, but also looking after anybody having troubles. Meanwhile, agents add, sellers of homes are having fewer trouble finding buyers this year, including in the higher ranges. Set to close this month, says Arnold, is a La Costa plan (everything in Eagle Bend is ranch-style) with walk-out on open space that had been listed at $472,000; another at $419,900 went under contract this week. Most tour homes are single-family…including a custom that had been built by Genesee, on the market now at $559,900, the most expensive.
Broadening the market further is that widened age range. Under Fair Housing rules, Powles notes, 80% of the community is restricted to 55 and older; but the new guidelines drop the limit for the remaining 20% a full decade below that. In making that decision, he adds, residents saw a trend toward younger purchasers shown by some Del Webb communities in Arizona. Open house runs 11-3 today; take E-470 to Gartrell, then south 0.6 mile to Heritage Parkway, and right to the gate. Check in at the Clubhouse’s Humboldt Room for registration/map.

PRICE: From $180s, single-family $3s to $559,000 (custom home)
WHEN: Sunday, 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
PHONE: 303-693-7788 WEB: HeritageEagleBend.com

In Southeast Denver, a fee-based retirement concept delivers the look and feel of single-family living

Administrator — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:55:29 +0000

New studies show that no matter how old they get, couples will do anything to keep from giving up their single-family house, though retirement places have low maintenance and better recreation. “We never lived in an apartment and would never want to,” Gene Fischer says…while admitting that he and wife Lutie looked at retirement areas all over town as their home in Centennial aged.

Gene and Lutie Fischer enjoy continental breakfast in their clubhouse at The Cottages at Dayton Place, a few doors from their home. Dayton Place’s Jennifer Davidson (left) and sales associate Bonnie Baker meet visitors to the project.

You can come see what they ended up doing…and get a Starbucks card and refreshments today, as well. The Fischers were the first residents to move into The Cottages at Dayton Place, a Southeast Denver enclave that has the advantages of a retirement community, but looks and feels like single-family homes…even down to the 2-car garage.

The Cottages are fee based…a one-time entry fee and a monthly (currently $2,900 for a couple) that covers not only the lease, but trimming the lawn, shoveling snow, twice-a-month housekeeping, interior maintenance on fixtures/appliances, and a clubhouse with spa and indoor pool. The Fischers were having a continental breakfast there when I stopped in——part of the package, with more meal options available. “We had a family reunion here at Christmas,” Lutie Fischer told me, pointing out the gathering areas where they hosted kids and grandkids.
In today’s market, The Cottages make the move to that sort of lifestyle easier still, says Ken Jaeger, president of MorningStar Senior Living, which launched The Cottages last year on the campus of its very successful Dayton Place Retirement Residences. In the range around $250,000 older homes are selling faster now…but for couples who are worried about whether the old place will sell, The Cottages will take a 10% down and wave the additional fee until the house sells.
The fee is entirely refundable when the resident leaves (including the possibility of a move into Dayton Place, for assisted living or memory care). What residents get in return is the size and privacy they’re used to. All homes are single-level, up to 1,750 feet, either 2-bedroom or 2-plus-den, plus the 2-car garage that can supplement storage space. Bonnie Baker and Jennifer Davidson (they’ll be on hand today) have explored all of the competition around town, and say they can’t find anything of the sort offering the size and value.
…Particularly on the entry fee, which The Cottages have reduced to levels starting at $245,000, just under where single-family re-sales are selling pretty briskly now. You can tour daily, just north of Parker Road on Dayton. Adds Lutie Fischer, “It’s like your own house.”
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Mark Samuelson is president of Samuelson & Associates, a homebuilding/real estate communications firm.

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WHERE: The Cottages at Dayton Place, senior living ranch-patio models, full services, 2-car attached garage, clubhouse; refreshments & Starbucks card today. 2000 S. Dayton St.; From Aurora take Parker Rd. north from Iliff 2 blks to Dayton, right 1 blk. From Denver take Parker Rd. south to Dayton, left.

PRICE: From $2,400/mo., refundable entrance fee from $245,000
WHEN: 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily
PHONE: 303-338-4338 WEB: MorningStarSeniorLiving.com

At ‘Community of the Year’ Anthem Ranch, lifestyle gets even Douglas County couples to move to Broomfield

Administrator — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:35:33 +0000

At Anthem Ranch, Del Webb’s all-ranch lifestyle community on a view-swept hillside north of Broomfield, it’s not that hard to get a buyer to pack up and move from Phoenix or even New Jersey. It’s a little tougher, says Del Webb’s Melanie Dube, to get somebody that lives in Highlands Ranch to do it…but it’s still happening.

Elaine and George Hager (left), from New Jersey, visit a super-affordable ‘Powderhorn’ ranch. Del Webb’s Melanie Dube had sold them their New Jersey home, as well.

“Highlands Ranch is 30 miles from here, and buyers who visit from there sometimes worry they’ll have a hard time making a new circle of friends,” says Dube, who has ten ranch models to show. “Some come back a dozen times; but once they talk to our residents, they’re sold.”

Last spring, when Del Webb had many single-family ranches waiting in inventory, you could visit a dozen times without worrying about whether there would be a home waiting for you when you were ready. But not anymore, says Dube. Anthem Ranch (last week, it won the 2009 BAR ‘Community of the Year’ award for the entire Denver area) has seen 30 homes disappear…and now has only three that can deliver before the holidays (one of them priced at only $374,000).

Dube and other Anthem Ranch sales consultants will show you sites where Del Webb can deliver a home this coming spring, including some with great views over open space to the Indian Peaks. “But if you want to be here,” Dube adds, “you need to get moving.”

One of those sites will likely disappear to Elaine and George Hager, whose kids have finally left home in New Jersey, giving them a chance to move from their Del Webb community there, back to Denver where they’d lived in the 1980s. “We loved the way that Del Webb builds,” Elaine said. “They take care of everything.”

The Hagers (he’s a retired surgeon) also know they’re unlikely to have trouble getting into the community scene at Anthem Ranch. They’ve already toured the ‘Aspen Lodge’ community center with indoor/outdoor pools and gorgeous fitness center, where clubs have formed around everything from scotch-tasting to poker. All of that is wrapped in 800 acres of open space and 48 miles of walking and biking trails.

The HOA fee for all of that is currently under $150/month! You’ll visit a luxurious ‘Aspen’ ranch, 2,837 feet and a 3-car garage that won the 2009 award for Denver’s ‘Best Design Under $600,000,’ and a new ‘Powderhorn’ ranch priced from only $249,000. Take I-25 north just past 470 to Highway 7, then west three miles to Lowell.

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WHERE: Open house at Anthem Ranch, 2009 ‘Community of the Year,” 10 ranch models on view, new super-affordable ‘Powderhorn’ model. 16583 Las Brisas Dr., Broomfield; I-25 north past 470 to Hwy 7, west 2 mi. to Lowell, left (south) 2 blks to Anthem Ranch, west. (Or from Broomfield, take Lowell n. past Northwest Pkwy.)

PRICE: From $250s; immediate move-ins from low $3s
WHEN: Satruday, Sunday, 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
PHONE: 303-604-5454 WEB: www.delwebb.com/colorado

With ranches and a golf lifestyle that keeps expenses in check, Heritage at Todd Creek lures buyers from all over

Administrator — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:50:20 +0000

Older buyers planning their retirement moves are getting a much-needed break from the stock market this week… but they’ll also find a break waiting at a 55-and-older community wrapped by an 18-hole Arthur Hills golf course, where you can see a 2,500-foot ranch today–basement and 3-car garage included–at a cost-per-foot of $144.

Lennar’s Mike DeNuzzi shows a large, single-family ranch with 3-car garage. Heritage at Todd Creek’s streets are private…covenant-controlled, with golf cart traffic allowed.

With ranches priced from the low $300s and some 2-bedroom “duos” from $269,900, Heritage at Todd Creek in Thornton has gone through five sales in the past month, during a year when you may imagine it hard to put together a retirement purchase.

Some buyers are actually getting a jump on retirement, according to Mike DeNuzzi, sales consultant at Heritage. “Thirty to 40% are still working,” he told me during a tour, followed by lunch at Todd Creek’s own Creekside Grille in the clubhouse. (You can get a 2-for-1 lunch coupon for the Grille for touring today——good now or on a return).

Another surprise: Buyers are from all over –– Littleton, Parker, Loveland – not just the northern suburbs. “For an active adult community with golf, we’re pretty much the only game in town,” DeNuzzi added. On the chilly day I visited, foursomes were still out shooting, then gathering for lunch afterward.

The $15 million clubhouse also has tennis, aerobics, club rooms (from karaoke to Texas hold’em), indoor pool, and another outdoors that’s designed as much to lure grandkids as residents. “This is a much better facility for entertaining grandkids,” said Lennar director of sales Jennifer Kimball, adding that Heritage attracts 30% of its buyers from out of state…wanting to move close, but not TOO close, to their kids.
That’s all part of the formula that Lennar had working at Heritage at Eagle Bend near Parker, which closed out this year. “We took everything that was working and applied it here,” Kimball added. Included in that recipe: the course…well equipped clubhouse…and a very low homeowner fee, currently $145/month for everything but golf.
…And reasonable prices on those big ranches. “When they see the models, they love them,” said DeNuzzi, who’ll be joined by Pam Warner and C.W. Vaughn today. On the tour: two ranches that can deliver soon, both on the 1st fairway…each around $50,000 lower than you could have found them last year. (You can ask about a reserved-seat seminar Oct. 24 that covers a buy-out program on your older place, or how to buy on a reverse mortgage). Take I-25 north past 120th, another six miles to Hwy 7, then east 5.5 miles to Yosemite.
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WHERE: Heritage at Todd Creek, active-adult community on Arthur Hills golf course, 2-or-3-bedroom ranches; buy-1-get-1-free coupons for Creekside Grille today (1-per-group, non-residents only). 8585 E. 152nd Lane, Thornton; take I-25 north past 120th, 6 mi. to Hwy 7, head east 5 mi. to Yosemite, and south.

PRICE: From $205,000 (1 left), duos from $269,900, single ranches from low $3s
WHEN: Today, 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
PHONE: 720-685-0873 WEB: Lennar.com

Are older buyers staying in Colorado? Sales at Del Webb’s Anthem say yes.

Administrator — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:32:14 +0000

By Mark Samuelson

Can you really sell people whose kids have flown the coop on the idea of staying in Colorado, rather than retiring to places with cactus and palm trees? You can…and some of the most recent converts want to tell you why Saturday, Aug. 22, at an “island luau” at Anthem Ranch, complete with tropical cocktails.

Anthem Ranch’s Nathan Freeman (left), Mary Kermoade, David Foster and (not shown) Melanie Dube show off one of nine ranches you can tour, along with lavish amenities covered by an HOA dues currently only $148/month.

What they WON’T have to do is convince you that this master-planned community in north Broomfield is pretty enough to attract older buyers (around 40% of them aren’t retired at all, still working). In addition to nine ranch single-family models from the mid $200s, you’ll see gorgeous views of the Indian Peaks, set against nine manicured lakes wrapped by 800 acres of open space and 48 miles of walking/bike trails; along with a spectacular ‘Aspen Lodge’ with indoor/outdoor pools and state-of-the-art fitness center.

“Around 40% of our move-ins come from out of state, places where they know Del Webb,” says Melanie Dube, sales counselor, who noted that one 79-year-old arrival is now biking 35 miles a day around Anthem Ranch. But the sales balance is changing, adds consultant Nathan Freeman.
“Over the last 90 days, we’re seeing awesome response from Broomfield, Lafayette and Arvada.” When I arrived, Freeman was greeting a Louisville couple who were among a dozen sales this past month. “They listed their older house last Friday, had three offers within days and sold for $3,000 more than they were asking.”
If you’re from Boulder, Freeman adds, “you can probably take your 1960 home and trade it for one of our ‘Aspen’ plans,”…big ranch with large entertaining area and a deck with a private entrance from the master. You can tour it today…and see a couple of quick-delivery homes where it’s paired to a view site and a walk-out lower level.
You’ll also get to talk with homeowners anxious to tell you how this close-knit community has worked for them…such as Don Gemelli and his wife, who moved from Illinois to be closer to an assortment of grandkids. He’s now an ‘ambassador’ at Aspen Lodge, site of dozens of clubs that have popped up, including a golf group that gets discounts making the rounds between six courses that are within a few miles of here.
At Saturday’s (Aug. 22) luau, you can try a pitch shot (for prizes) at a floating green on the lake behind the models; pilot an RC sailboat; and enjoy Beach Boys classics by a live group. “But our goal,” says Freeman, “is to get you in front of our homeowners. They’re going to tell you, ‘I wish I would have done this sooner.’”
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If you go…

WHERE: Luau & club expo today at Anthem Ranch, Del Webb-designed active adult community, 9 ranch-style models, island cuisine, cocktails. 16583 Las Brisas Dr., Broomfield; I-25 north past 470 to Hwy 7, west 2 mi. to Lowell, left (south) 2 blks to Anthem Ranch, west. Or from Broomfield, take Lowell n. from 144th, past Northwest Pkwy, 1 mi.
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PRICE: From $240s; homes for immediate move-in from $260s
WHEN: Sat & Sun. 9:30-5
PHONE: 303-604-5454 WEB: www.delwebb.com/colorado