Retiree Hot Spot on Nashville Medical News

Retiree Hot Spot

By: SHARON H. FITZGERALD

The Maristone of Franklin on Riverside Drive

Nashville Senior Living Real Estate is Booming

When in August Forbes ranked Nashville as one of the top 10 most affordable places in the United States to retire, it was just another validation of what real estate investors already knew – Nashville is a hot spot for senior living.

Forbes ranked Nashville No. 10, noting that the city already had received a ranking of No. 9 by the magazine for affordable housing and a 2007 nod as one of the nation's "Best Places for Business."

"Add in pleasant weather and all the benefits a community derives from a top-notch university like Vanderbilt, and you've got a fine place to retire," Forbes said. Helping shoot Nashville up the list was the number of doctors per capita.

All these Nashville-area amenities helped convince Karen Shayne and her two investment partners to sink $25 million into three senior-living developments. Shayne is CEO of Maristone Senior Living LLC, which broke ground Sept. 18 on The Maristone of Franklin on Riverside Drive. The 45,000-square-foot facility will feature 41 assisted-living suites, 13 dementia units and nine spaces for adult daycare — a service that Shayne says is lacking in the Middle Tennessee market. The facility is slated to open in May 2009. Work will begin in November on a similar Maristone in Mt. Juliet's Providence community and at Gallatin's upscale Fairvue Plantation in February 2009.

"This community, with its rapid growth of retirees, is prime to build these assisted livings," she said. "Our goal is to build 10 in Middle Tennessee within the next seven years."

Shayne believes the Nashville area is behind the curve when it comes to the "hospitality movement" in senior living. "I see the opportunity to really enhance people's lives on a bigger scale than just moving into an assisted-living facility," she said. Thus, Maristone will offer custom programs such as a travel club and "Maristone Transitions," featuring individual counseling and a support group to help new residents become accustomed to assisted living. Shayne said the company has applied for a certificate of need to offer in-home care as well.

Murfreesboro-based TDK Construction sees its home base as a community ripe for additional senior-living options. While TDK has built numerous assisted-living facilities for clients across the country, the company's development arm plans to build Creekside at Three Rivers and retain ownership. "There's a great demand here in the Murfreesboro area and a limited supply," said Ross Bradley, who heads TDK's Development and Preconstruction Services. Creekside will feature 74 assisted-living units and 81 beds, including some dementia beds.

The facility will be the only one of its kind west of Interstate 24. "That's a growing area, and a market that's not being served right now," Bradley added.

Creekside will be located in a sprawling development on Highway 99 fronted by a 15-acre retail site and including 1,600 homes. Bradley said TDK will break ground on the $10 million to $12 million project in early 2009, and construction is expected to take about a year.

Construction is underway on the second phase at The Heritage of Brentwood, which opened May 1, 2007 with 180 independent apartments and villas and 36 skilled-nursing beds in its Somerfield Health Center.

Executive Director Jon Tagatz said the residential units have been 97 to 99 percent full since the first of the year, and that Somerfield's occupancy rate is about 90 percent and "gradually filling." In January, Somerfield was authorized to participate in Medicare. Heritage residents are guaranteed space in Somerfield should they ever need it.

"We'll eventually have the full continuum of care," Sandy Griffin-Bukoskey, administrator, explained. "That includes our home-health agency that services our residents. So, if they choose to age in place in their apartment, we can bring services to their home for them. That encircles the whole continuum of care."

What The Heritage calls its Phase 2a is 37 villas and garden villas. The first four completed were quickly occupied. Phase 2b will include another apartment building, assisted-living and dementia units, and 30 more skilled-nursing beds (which received CON approval in August).

"When we're completely built out, we should have 337 apartments and villa homes, 75 skilled-nursing beds, 15 memory care/assisted living beds and 12 assisted-living suites in a separate building," Griffin-Bukoskey said.

Added Tagatz, "We're on 48.5 acres. It looks big now, but it's going to fill the footprint."

Entrance fees for residential units in Phase 1 start at $272,000 and are $295,000 in Phase 2. While The Heritage uses the word "purchase" to describe the arrangement, residents don't actually own their home. "It's looked at as a loan, because when they vacate the apartment or villa, 90 percent of that purchase price goes back to that person or to their estate," Tagatz said. Residents are charged a monthly service fee that averages about $3,000, adding just under $1,000 for a second person. The fee includes a dining allocation.

The Heritage is owned by Life Care Services in Des Moines, Iowa, with senior-living developments in 30 states. Tagatz said the area's demographics attracted Life Care Services.

"Brentwood itself could not support a community like The Heritage, but Middle Tennessee, if you bring in Nashville, can. Plus, between 30 and 40 percent of our residents have moved here from out of state, which is pretty amazing."

According to the Seniors Resource Guide for Davidson County and eight surrounding counties, there are: