Baby boomer health care prompts targeted developments

Move over students – here come the seniors.

A November 2014 study by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services found by the year 2020, the Springfield metropolitan statistical area would need another 900 skilled nursing facility beds and 300 assisted living facility beds to keep up with demand by baby boomers. The numbers behind the nursing needs are staggering: every day 10,000 Americans are turning 65 from now till 2030, according to Pew Research. That pace actually started in 2011.

A handful of area developers are answering the call.

Over $65 million in senior-living projects have wrapped up or started over a two-year period, according to Springfield Business Journal research.

Moving in on Nixa
Springfield-based O’Reilly Development Co. LLC is behind the largest-known local project – a 104-bed $18.8 million continuum-of-care complex in Nixa, The Castlewood Senior Living.

Denise Heintz, an O’Reilly Development partner and director of operations and development, is overseeing more than $100 million in projects across four senior-living communities in Missouri. After completing a $20 million center in Blue Springs last year, O’Reilly Development is simultaneously building in Nixa and St. Charles, with another $54 million in projects slated for Joplin and Wentzville.

The Castlewood in Nixa, at the entrance to The Villages of Wicklow off Highway CC, comprises 51 independent living units, 40 assisted living units and 13 memory care service units.

“We feel like our communities, which are a continuum-of-care model that start with independent living and add the assisting living and memory care to it, is a niche that is well received by the baby boomer generation,” Heintz said.

The Parkway Senior Living in Blue Springs opened in July with 142 units, and it’s now 100 percent occupied.

While the Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee grants approval for new projects factoring in local demand for services, Heintz said O’Reilly Development performs its own research to determine if projects are hitting target audiences. Focused on an upscale clientele, The Castlewood has 11 floor plans spanning the three care options with lease-and-service packages ranging from $2,300 to $5,000 a month.

“It offers a variety of amenities from full dining services that are not tied to the dinner bell. The dinner bell rings at five, but they can individually order whatever they want when they want. So, there is a sense of community, but there also is a sense of independence,” Heintz said. “We start with the independent living, which is the first step from selling your home and becoming a part of an age-in-place community. And then we have applications for the assisted living and memory care, so that it can be home for the rest of their lives. They don’t have to relocate.”

Pat O’Reilly of O’Reilly Development first dipped his toes into senior-living projects with another developer now growing his 55-plus portfolio: Matt E. Miller of Miller Commerce LLC. Alongside Miller-O’Reilly student-housing developments in 2013, the partners invested $5 million to expand the 127-bed The Fremont Senior Living complex, but it was their only senior-living project completed before a split later that year.

“It is very similar to The Fremont,” Heintz said of The Castlewood. “It has 100 percent occupancy and a waiting list, so we think Nixa as a bedroom community to Springfield and direct routes to medical facilities is going to be just as successful.”

Demand spurs partnerships
Miller is staying busy too with a fresh focus on senior living. Last month, he announced a partnership with principals from Arkansas-based Reliance Health Care Inc. to develop Birch Pointe Health and Rehabilitation through Primrose Senior Living LLC. The $17 million, 120-bed skilled nursing center is designed to offer short-term rehabilitation, long-term care and memory care services just west of the Medical Mile and Kickapoo High School at the corner of South Jefferson Avenue and East Primrose Street.

Each of the three services would be segmented into individual zones featuring their own dining areas, open spaces and courtyards, and planned amenities include a bistro, wireless internet and a salon.

Miller’s plans follow a $7.5 million 55-plus project coming to 2715 S. Kimbrough Ave., known as Tera Vera. He teamed up with Sam E. Coryell and Sam M. Coryell of TLC Properties to develop 31 units mixed between two- and three-bedroom duplex floor plans within a gated community. Along East Sunset Street, Tera Vera is designed with press-button securities, universal design, a lifestyle consultant and a dog park. Rents range from $2,095 to $2,745 per month.

The Coryells, who have built a living serving the student-housing scene, are also fairly new to senior living. Their first foray into the golden market came through Coryell Commons, 248 E. Monastery Ave., a $10 million project with 130 units that opened late last year south of James River Freeway.

“Matt came to me about a year ago. At that point, he already had plans developed and a business model put together,” TLC Executive Director Sam M. Coryell said, adding Miller was leaning on TLC as a consultant for the layout of the community before partnership talks emerged. “He showed this one to me and I said I’ve been wanting to learn the 55-and-older business for quite some time, so to do that with somebody who has some experience in that field was great.”

In addition to Coryell Commons and Tera Vera, TLC Properties manages 17 multifamily complexes serving over 6,000 residents.

Senior clout
Coryell said he’d like to explore more senior-housing developments with Miller.

“This is definitely a growing industry, and we feel like it’s a good time to get involved,” Coryell said. “There seems to be a philosophical shift out there where the new batch of retirees want a rental product.”

According to the 2016 National Association of Realtors Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study, the typical age of home sellers was 54, up from 46 in 2009. The study was released in March based on a July 2015 survey of nearly 95,000 recent buyers and sellers.

Coryell said home-value losses with the Great Recession seem to be encouraging seniors to sell as buyers return to the market.

Steve Stinnett, vice president of new development for Miller Commerce, said he expects the next 10 years of development for Miller Commerce to largely be shaped by senior housing.

“A lot of our market research we’ve done shows that with 55 and older, after they sell their primary residence, they really want to keep that money liquid and would rather pay rent,” Stinnett said. “It’s better for the estate, and there are less worries.”