Aging boomers fuel flurry of new senior living options

Step inside the soon-to-open Magnolia Springs and see the future of senior living.

The soaring entrance looks like a high-end resort hotel. A concierge will staff the lobby to help residents and visitors.

Further in, you’ll see a grab-and-go bistro with a cappuccino machine. Pick up a snack. Grab a Gatorade or an ice cream cone.

Enjoy a movie in the theater with a popcorn machine, get your hair done in the beauty salon/barber shop, work out in the exercise class and/or worship in the chapel. Then you can relax in your compact no-stairs apartment with high-end fit and finish. Come dinner time, you saunter to the dining room and let dinner come to you before it’s time for happy hour.

The Magnolia Springs 97-unit complex, off the newly extended Citation Boulevard near the Masterson Station development, is an expansion of the Magnolia Springs brand. The company opened the first of two Louisville facilities in June 2009 and currently has six facilities opened or soon to open.

It is one of many senior residences either under construction or scheduled to open during the next year in and around Lexington. The residences cover a variety of needs, from independent to assisted living, memory care to nursing care.

Kentucky’s population is aging, and it mirrors a worldwide trend, according to state demographer Ron Crouch.

As Crouch whizzes through data about Kentucky, he says that while the young may still set the fashion, the population growth is assuredly pointing toward people over 25.

“For the next 20 years we’re going to have a big population every year turning 70,” Crouch said. “We’re just at the start of the aging revolution.”

Part of that revolution is a group of seniors attracted to the new, posh senior residences where they can live as active people who just don’t want to climb the stairs and mow the lawn and sweat the upkeep of a big house anymore. It’s not cheap: Prices usually start in the $2,000 a month range and can go as high as $5,000 or higher for specialized help such as memory care.

In a Crouch presentation to real estate agents recently, he said that all those aching senior knees can become an issue in that two-story house with its second-floor master suite and basement washer and dryer: “We’re about to see a lot of people sleeping on their couches with dirty clothes and using chamber pots,” he said.

The non-profit think tank Demand Institute said in a recent report, “Baby boomers & Their Homes: On Their Own Terms,” that $1 out of every $4 spent on home purchases and rent in the next five years will be spent by boomer households which include members 50 to 69 years old.

More than half of those who move will be downsizing and looking for smaller or more modestly priced homes, but they will still be seeking high-end finishes and nearby amenities and services.

There’s a reason for that. In Fayette County alone, the number of seniors and near-seniors is picking up as more baby boomers hit their retirement years. In 2010, census figures show that Lexington had 41,278 citizens 60 and older. By 2014, that had gone up to 47,946.

One puzzling trend in the Fayette County population is the dearth of people 80-84, where the numbers actually declined from 2010 to 2014. Crouch has an answer for that: the Depression didn’t just tank the national economy, but birth rates as well. “You can’t grow old if you never got born.”

But overall, expect to see more housing products with senior appeal, Crouch said: “People are living longer, they’re healthier, you can see why the developers see a trend toward the aging population in Lexington.”

The developers of Highgrove at Tates Creek,who are building 89 senior apartments, said that the company’s business model will let tenants who move into the independent living apartments add services a la carte as they need them, such as medication reminders or help with bathing. It is scheduled to open in the fall.

“We try to eliminate a lot of the changes” that senior citizens dislike, said Autumn Dominski, executive director at Highgrove Lexington, located on Saron Drive. “If they move in with us, they can add on the services they need.”

Like Magnolia Springs, Highgrove is big on amenities, including a full-service salon, exercise classes, spa with massage therapist and a visiting physician, nurse and podiatrist.

“It’s kind of like a hotel or a cruise ship,” Dominski said. “You have all these amenities and you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.”

The Magnolia Springs company either already operates or is opening residences in Florence and Indianapolis in addition to Lexington.

Gabriel Huffman, director of community relations for Magnolia Springs of Lexington, said that the Magnolia Springs founder, Neil Ramsey, “wanted to build communities that he would want to live in.”

Hence the walking track, putting green, ’50s diner with jukebox and pool table and post-dinner happy hour with drink tickets. Residents who still drive can park in a garage. Those who don’t can take advantage of provided sedan and bus service for doctor’s appointments, shopping and outings.

A business center for residents provides a FAX machine, printer and iPads available for checkout.

Apartments are wheelchair-accessible and available in a range of sizes. Twenty-five of the apartments are in a memory-care wing with controlled access.

The developers “wanted to make sure it didn’t look like a nursing home,” Huffman said.

Hence, the wide hallways feature cut-in nooks like those in an apartment building rather than fully open hospital-style hallways.

The question for the new complexes: Will there be enough affluent seniors to fill the apartments?

Margaret McCoskey, who has worked with senior homes including Bridgepointe at Ashgrove Woods in Jessamine County and is on the mayor’s senior services commission, said that affordability is going to be a key factor in the success of the variations on senior communities. Having everything a senior could want in a single location is pricey, McCoskey said, and many seniors either will never have enough money to move into such units, or may run out of money after getting a taste of luxurious senior living.

Between the shiny new apartments at one end and Medicaid beds in traditional nursing homes at the other, seniors will be hitting the housing market in ever-increasing numbers as the full effect of aging baby boomers is felt, McCoskey said.

While HUD housing for the elderly is often a good option, McCoskey said, it often does not provide the kind of on-site attention that older residents need as their living skills decline.

This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Aging boomers fuel flurry of new senior living options."