Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.
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bluespire senior living LEVERAGE YOUR LEADS Sales consulting and training. bluespire senior living MAKE THE PHONE RING Fully-integrated campaigns. bluespire senior living TURN PROSPECTS INTO RESIDENTS Te only response management system built for the senior living industry. Go ahead, stack the deck in your favor. No, these are not playing cards. These are real "business cards" that infuence the business of sales in senior living. Get yours today. Call us at 1-877-571-7743 or visit bluespiremarketing.com/cards Understand what makes your prospects tick. And what ticks them off. We track, measure and report everything so you don't have to. formerly ASPIRE TO M RE to maintain a connection to their school are a ready source of residents. Many are interested in taking classes and participating in college-related activities. The non-proft Kendal Corp. provides development and opera- tional assistance to 13 non-proft affliates, all of which have college connections. With roots in the Quaker religion, Kendal's approach is built on community engagement and learning, rather than a hospitality model. In the Finger Lakes region of New York State, Kendal at Ithaca, for example, has partnerships with nearby Ithaca College and Cornell Univer- sity. Residents of the community attend classes at the schools and lecture series are also held at the community. Barclay Friends, Kendal's affliate in Chester County, Pa., serves as a training ground for gerontology students at Thomas Jefferson University. Kendal's Lathrop communities in western Massa- chusetts have relationships with area colleges, including Amherst, Williams, and Smith. Seniors who move to a Ken- dal community want to be part of an organization that provides more than a place to live and some healthcare, says Sean Kelly, director of development at Kendal based in Kennett Square, Pa., about 38 miles southwest of Phila- delphia. "They want to engage with the community." Kendal is currently in the process of developing new communities with two colleges in the Northeast, which Kelly declined to name. The communi- ties would be built on campus and share amenities with the college, thereby integrating the students and seniors more seam- lessly. Cross-generational pro- grams would also blend the two populations. While a number of colleges have encouraged the develop- ment of affliated retirement com- munities as a way to trade on the school's brand name, Kelly says, "We are more intentional about building programs from the start." Strong bonds Niche communities with a deep pool of prospects are expanding. Designed for retired military offcers, Vinson Hall Retirement Community recently opened a new 75-unit indepen- dent living apartment building on its campus in McLean, Va. Vinson Hall is a continuing care retire- ment community (CCRC) and entrance fees for units in the new building average about $500,000. Monthly fees are about $2,000. The units were sold out two years in advance. Customer demand for units has been strong because of the number of retired offcers living in the Washington, D.C., area. Demand also received a boost from the fact that several years Rowntree Gardens changed its name from Quaker Gardens Senior Living last September. The name change was part of a rebranding and renovation program at the community located in Stanton, Calif. The community was founded as a place for retiring Quaker missionaries, but has shifted its focus to a wider group of residents. "We try to keep our residents in contact with what is going on with the military," says Admiral Kathleen Martin, who retired from the Navy in 2005 and now is CEO of Vinson Hall. 40 www.seniorshousingbusiness.com Seniors Housing Business n February-March 2015