Corrections or additions?
This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the June 23, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Princeton Windrows: Hybrid CCRC
Princeton Windrows, adjacent to Princeton Forrestal Village, is a
hybrid between active adult and continuing care retirement communities
(CCRCs) and represents the latest trend in senior housing. This model,
an equity-based condominium, is called "an unbundled CCRC" and it
differs from the usual CCRCs because the residents own their
apartments, villas, or two-story homes.
Unlike the active adult condominium settlements such as Rossmoor and
Clearbrook, it has a dining room and requires residents to purchase 30
meals a month, lunches or dinners. (They do not need to eat in the
dining room daily; they can use the meal tickets for entertaining.)
The monthly fee also includes two hours of housekeeping weekly and
free transportation services.
Windrows is also different because no upgrades to assisted living or
nursing homes are included. Windrows owners have priority access to
area nursing homes, and if someone needs to move permanently a higher
level of care, they can sell the unit and move. Nevertheless, a
registered nurse is on duty seven days a week, and she is available
for triage services, blood pressure tests, etc. Other amenities
include tennis courts, indoor swimming pool, and a health club.
CareMatrix developed Windrows plus the adjacent skilled nursing center
and an assisted living center that are owned now by Lehman Brothers
and known as the Pavilions at Forrestal. The independent housing
complex, Windrows, opened four years ago. When CareMatrix went
bankrupt, a subsidiary of Bank of America took the unsold properties,
and now they are owned by Windrows New Jersey Holdings LLC. Springton
Development, the new property manager, has taken the unsold units off
the market so that it can make improvements.
But some previously owned properties are on the market. A villa,
currently on sale for $450,000, would require a monthly fee of $1,114,
(plus $450 for a second person), a condo fee of $1,188, and the bills
for utilities and cable would be extra.
A studio apartment at Windrows is 620 square feet, which is about the
same size as one of the one bedroom apartments at Stonebridge. A
studio is currently on sale for $161,000. It would have a monthly
facilities fee of $941 for one person, a condo fee of $298, a utility
bill of $58, and a cable bill of $26.
At 40 percent occupancy, with 94 units occupied, the median age at
Windrows is 77, and the oldest resident is 100. The female to male
ratio is 87 to 55, and just over half of the residents are married
couples. About 70 percent of the residents had lived in Princeton or
have a connection with Princeton University, and one cohort of 14
families came en masse from Long Island.
At Windrows, anyone who runs out of money or is too sick to stay has
the option of selling and taking their full money out of what they put
into it. Charles Mooney, senior vice president at Presbyterian Homes,
thinks the market is shifting toward an equity model. "We do not sell
an equity-based product, but we are looking at that," he says.
Forrestal Village, Princeton 08540. Sherry Wagner, executive director.
609-514-0001; fax, 609-514-0005.
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Tough Choices
The U.S. 1 Health and Fitness Directory, enclosed with this issue of
the newspaper, has listings for elder care choices, including CCRCs,
Nursing Services, Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing, and Nursing Homes.
Consultants to help make the choices are listed under Elder Care
Assistance. Here are more detailed explanation of some choices:
Active adult communities have numerous amenities and activities, but
they do not offer meals or health care. Units cost from $100,000 to
more than $300,000, plus there is a monthly maintenance fee. For
instance Clearbrook, has heated and unheated outdoor pools, tennis
courts, exercise room, a clubhouse with ceramics, billiards, woodshop,
and art, a 1,000-seat theater, a 9-hole golf course, and a grocery
shuttle.
Founded 40 years ago, Rossmoor has a heated outdoor pool, tennis,
bocce, croquet, shuffleboard, an 18-hole golf course, an exercise
room, a clubhouse with a woodshop and ceramics rooms, and a ballroom.
It also has a medical building on the premises, an in-house
maintenance crew, and an express bus to New York City.
Continuing care retirement communities offer amenities, activities,
meals, health care, and a guaranteed place in a skilled nursing or
assisted living facility on the premises. Some contracts bundle in the
health care and the upgrades, and some require additional payments.
Entrance fees start at about $200,000 and monthly fees in New Jersey
average $2,500.
New Jersey has licensed 23 CCRCs, and all three near Princeton –
Meadow Lakes, Monroe Village, and Stonebridge at Montgomery – were
built by Presbyterian Homes. (Princeton Windrows, a hybrid or
"unbundled" CCRC, does not include health care and is not associated
with a particular assisted living or skilled nursing facility.
Home health care. Round-the-clock home health aides can help some
elders stay in their own homes. Live-in coverage, seven days a week,
can average $4,500 to $5,000 per month, says Bonnie Kramer of Elder
Care Solutions.
Assisted living facilities, such as Buckingham Place, Bear Creek, and
the Pavilions at Forrestal, are for those who do not wish to – or
cannot – live on their own. The least expensive semiprivate room costs
about $2,500 a month, and the average price for a private room is
about $4,000. Most require about one month’s rent up front as an
entrance fee or community fee. Medicaid will pay, typically, about
$2,430 per month. Some facilities will not accept Medicaid patients
but will keep patients who qualify for Medicaid after they get there.
Assisted living facilities may have a strict definition of whom they
will serve, but this definition can change over time, as the
population ages in place. Patients who need extra care can hire
companions or round-the-clock home health aides and save $2,000 or
$3,000 or month over the cost of a skilled nursing home.
"Assisted living can serve anyone, from someone who is independent and
drives but wants to kick back a notch and not cook or clean, to
borderline nursing home patients," says Paul O’Brien, former director
of an assisted living facility who is now a senior care consultant.
The typical admission is an 82-year-old female who is no longer safe
cooking and may need assistance with dressing and monitoring
medication.
Most admissions are "event driven" rather than the result of advance
planning. Something happens – a fall, an accident – that makes it
obvious the elderly person cannot continue to live at home alone.
Skilled nursing costs about $7,000 per month for a semiprivate room.
Patients who need a respirator or feeding tubes would require skilled
nursing. Some assisted living facilities have skilled nursing
sections, and all CCRCs offer skilled nursing.
Boarding Homes, labeled in this directory as Nursing Homes, offer only
residential care. For instance, the Featherbed Lane Rest Home in
Hopewell charges $1,200 a month for a private room or $1,000 for a
room shared with several other people. This includes three meals a day
and basic laundry.
Corrections or additions?
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