Architectural rendering of The Mather at Tysons is subject to change.
Credit: Mather
Senior living provider Mather has secured $300 million in construction financing to build The Mather, a life plan community, in Tysons, VA.
The community will mark the organization’s entry into Virginia. Mather currently operates life plan communities, also known as continuing care retirement communities, or CCRCs, in Illinois and Arizona.
“This will be trailblazing in Tysons in terms of being an entrance-fee life plan community with a full continuum of living, ranging from independent living to assisted living, memory support and skilled nursing,” Mather CEO and President Mary Leary told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
Residents will be required to be at least 62 years old to move into The Mather, although for couples, a spouse or partner can be younger.
The Mather in Tysons will include two residential buildings, one with 186 apartments (phase 1) and one with 114 apartments (phase 2). Mather has been doing some site work and expects to start vertical construction of the first building in the first quarter of next year, Leary said, with the initial phase finished in the first quarter of 2024 and second phase completed in the third quarter of 2024.
The buildings will be connected at the third through the fifth floors. Third-floor amenity spaces will include a fitness center, spa, indoor pool, multiple restaurants, outdoor terraces and art studio. The fourth and fifth floors will be home to a “Life Centre” with 16 assisted living apartments, 20 memory care suites and 42 private skilled nursing suites.
The community also will include approximately 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, including a community center that will be open to Fairfax County, VA, residents aged 50 and older, through a collaboration with the county.
Once they move in, Leary said, residents will be able to occupy an apartment “for life,” but it’ll be neither a rental nor a purchase. Residents will pay an upfront entrance fee at move-in; if/when they move out, 90% of the entrance fee will be refunded, she said. Residents are assessed a monthly service fee.
Residents will be pre-qualified from a financial standpoint before move-in, she said.
“Once approved, the expectation is that we will assume the people have the financial wherewithal that they would not run out of money. If they did run out of money, their costs would be covered by the community,” she said.
The Mather in Tysons will offer two approaches to care.
“If someone wants what we call the life plan community plan, they’ll pay a little bit more each month. And then if they transfer to a higher level of care, they’ll continue paying what they would have paid if they had remained in their independent apartment,” Leary said.
“We also offer a 90-day plan, which is a slightly lower monthly fee. That would mean that if they need a higher level of care, the first 90 days’ fees would be at the [same] rate as they would have paid if they’d remained in their apartment,” she said. “That option is often attractive to people who might have long-term care insurance, which might have a 90-day deductible.”
