Five months after construction began, Broadview Senior Living, a university-based retirement community on the campus of Purchase College in Westchester County, NY, has a 90% reservation rate for its 220 independent living units.
The community is being constructed on the grounds of Purchase College in Rye Brook, NY, as part of the State University of New York system. In November, Fairfield, CT-based investment bank and wealth management firm HJ Sims closed a $398.1 million tax-exempt and taxable bond issue for the new life plan community.
Future residents have made a deposit equal to 10% of the entrance fee for that resident, and the entrance fee is 90% refundable regardless of length of residency, according to a news release from LCS Development, which with Senior Care Development is serving as the development consultant for the project.
Although university-based retirement communities are starting to become more common in the United States, Broadview Senior Living will be the first of its kind in the tri-state area,” Ashley Wade, director of marketing for Broadview, told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
Slated to open in the late summer 2023, the 40-acre community will welcome older adults aged 62 or more years. The community will be nestled within the college’s 500 acres, which are approximately 30 miles from New York City.
The product seems to be selling itself to interested individuals and couples, according to Wade.
“It really does speak to those older adults that want to remain engaged intellectually, academically, culturally and remain vibrant and engaged,” she said, adding that the community is not just adjacent to campus.
“We’re part of the campus. That’s an experience that speaks to many older adults” Wade added. “It also self-selects out people that say, ‘That isn’t’ for me.’ Everyone that joins Broadview has a like mindset of wanting to be a lifelong learner. …So, it kind of does the marketing for us.”
In addition to independent living, the community will offer assisted living, enhanced assisted living and memory care services. The enhanced senior living, Wade said, is a step up from assisted living for residents who need some level of nursing care.
“It allows residents to remain where they are in assisted living and just have additional care brought to them without having to make a move to skilled nursing,” she said.
So far, future residents who have laid down their deposits range from a couple who won’t be 62 until the community opens in 2023 to folks in their 90s, Wade said. Most are residents of Westchester County, she said, “and they just know and love the area.” Many are retired academicians from area educational institutions for whom the idea of living hear a college campus is attractive.
“That’s not at all unusual for university-based retirement communities. They tend to self-recruit from people who made a living in the academic world,” Wade said.
A major feature of the Broadview campus will be the “Learning Commons,” a communal space where residents, students and faculty members will have opportunities to interact and learn intergenerationally.
“The Learning Commons will be a brand-new, 10,000-foot common building that is attached to the clubhouse of the retirement community that will literally be a crucible, collaborative engagement between the students of Purchase College and the residents of Broadview,” Wade said. “It’s a space that has maker space, classroom space, a culinary arts section and gathering spaces.”
Additionally, residents will be able to audit college courses at “greatly reduced rates” through the state, according to Wade.
Broadview’s setting is a win-win for both residents and students, she said: residents have many opportunities to stay engaged, and students have “built-in grandparents” as well as mentors from various careers. The community also will be able to provide work opportunities for students, Wade added.
