The Arbor at Delray is a luxurious senior living community offering independent living, assisted living, and dementia living care, opening in late 2022. In this webinar replay, Robert Hall, Managing Director at Alliance Residential, Jessica Willms, Design Director and Sr. Project Manager of Sagestone, and Eric Francese, Excecutive Director of The Arbor at Delray, discuss the intentional design behind the community and the exceptional senior living experience it will provide our residents.
Video Transcript
- Hello everybody, and welcome into Senior Living Live. My name is Melissa. Today we are thrilled to take you inside one of our newest communities currently under construction and under the Arbor Company umbrella, the Arbor at Delray. Yes, that Delray. Delray Beach, Florida. A beautiful community nestled down on Florida's Southeast coast. Now you see a group of people here. We're gonna introduce you to all of them. We've got Arbor's Eric Francese. He is the Executive Director for the community. Our partners at Alliance Residential LLC, and Sagetone Design. They are with us today to give you a sneak peek at this gorgeous development set to open up at the end of 22. And then in another phase, early 2023. And guess what guys? You get to ask our panel all the questions you wanna know about this wonderful community. Robert Hall, Jessica Willms and Eric. Good to see you all today. How are you all?
- Hello.
- Great, thank you.
- Doing good.
- Perfect. Perfect. All right, so we're gonna get to know everybody here to start this off. Can you all talk a little bit about yourselves, your background and the vision for your respective companies over the next five years and Robert, we will start with you.
- Yeah. So I grew up in Southeastern Wisconsin and came down to south Florida for college back in the late eighties and never moved back to the frozen tundra. So been in Florida ever since, and been in the real estate world for about almost 30 years now, a lot in the multi-family, luxury multi-family world for a lot of those years. And now transitioning into doing some senior housing as well, been with Alliance Residential for almost 12 years, and really excited to be working on this project with not only the Arbor team, but also Jess at Sagestone, really excited how everything's starting to turn out.
- Awesome. Jessica, go ahead.
- So I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. So I am a Florida native, graduated with a degree in interior design in 2005 from Florida State University Go Noles. I immediately graduated and moved to Austin, Texas, where I worked for very many years, specializing in senior living. Built a lot of contacts and reputation in industry while I was there, and I started Sagestone Design at the end of 2017 with the now owners of our company, and have been lucky to work with Robert since early 2019. Joyous conclusion has been that our Sagestone team and the Alliance Development team worked really, really well together. And we have another future development that we're working on also. My hope is that Robert and I can build fantastic stunning projects together as long as we possibly can.
- Yeah, we gotta see some of that design up close and personal today and give a good go Noles to the beautiful design that we have seen from you in the past and what you got for us coming up in the future. Eric, the floor's yours. Go ahead.
- Great. As you just said, Melissa, I'm the Executive Director at The Arbor at Delray. South Florida native, born and raised pretty much in Boca Raton. Stayed there all through my schooling, graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic College with a Marine accounting. Pretty much went directly into Senior Living back in 1998, never looked back, been everything from a finance director to over the last 10 years or so in administration and associate executive director and executive director roles in large CCR communities in Boca Raton. Super excited to join the Arbor Company for this project back in January, just super excited. We have started building our team. We have Jenny Nadler and Jarret Leman have joined me. I've worked with them for a long time in the past. So we have our leasing centers up and running. We have depositors already on board. So just the projects just moving along very well and just super excited.
- I love to hear it. Yeah. And for those of you watching, our viewers, feel free at any time, when you have a question that comes to your mind and you don't wanna forget it, scroll down to the bottom of your screen where it says Q&A and you can type out your questions there. I will go ahead and read that to our panel at the end of our presentation, we'll make sure we get all of those answered. But like I said, anytime, feel free, type those questions out. We'll get to 'em. All right. So early February of this year, it was announced that this wonderful community, the Arbor at Delray would be ready in 2023. Now we went into the decision, I should say, what went into the decision to land in Delray beach for this particular community with all the senior living communities in Florida and what makes this particular community so unique guys?
- Yeah, I can start with that. Alliance Residential is known for developing high end luxury for rent by choice apartments across the country. We've done some amazing projects here in south Florida with really, really, well done fit and finish, really contemporary, real cutting edge type stuff. And we wanted to segue that into kind of the senior industry. We felt like historically, it's been a little bit watered down and maybe a little old and tired, and we're trying to bring a more elegant contemporary high end finish and feel to our senior housing projects that we're doing. And as far as the location, I mean, Delray is just an excellent location. This particular site is just positioned so well with having very high end single family communities, country club communities up and down the road adjacent to us, the proximity to the entertainment that downtown Delray Atlantic avenue has to offer. Boca Raton with Mizner Park, Boca Town Center mall. So just a lot of close proximity, high end restaurants, entertainment and that sort of thing.
- So we'll move to the next question. That is the ideas and the decision making that went into the blueprint for this particular community. You mentioned you wanted things looking a little bit more high end, sort of the tired, well, maybe some of the older communities that are nearby and just really pop and stand out and be different from those. So how will all of those ideas come together and be streamlined into the final product and maybe Jessica, this is a good question for you.
- Sure. We wanted this whole design experience of this community to start at the front door. So you wanna keep building the experience as you travel through the site. A majority of our spaces direct themselves to the outside. So you'll see a heavy presence on our courtyards and some of our beautiful outdoor spaces with the gardens that are right next door and everything looking so lush and green out in that area. We really want that to be a heavy presence as part of the community. And we feel very, very specific about the consistent experience traveling through the whole property. So there's not any difference in aesthetic or finish out as you travel through the independent living, the assisted living or memory care.
- Awesome. Awesome. Anybody else wanna add to that particular question? No. Okay. So we can move on to trends and maybe Eric, this could be for you to start first, just having been kind of in that south Florida area for a while now, what are sort of those trends that you're noticing right now in senior living and how do you think COVID has changed the way we approach senior living and brand new senior living communities and that particular blueprint? We'll start with you, Eric, and then we'll move on to Robert with that answer.
- Sure. Well, COVID taught us a lot. We had to pivot and do a lot of different things that we hadn't done before using a lot of virtual tours, really, really enhancing our social media and websites to really capture the prospects out there and give them still a good feel, even though COVID was going on and it could have been difficult to come inside the community. And I think we've used that and learned from that and used that experience now that Covid kind of slowed down a little bit and you can still tour and you can't get face to face. I think we we're utilizing those tools even more than we had in the past which is really helping the prospect and families that are out of state maybe, or out of the area to really get a good feel of the community. I think, just really honing those skills on the virtual part of the business and the social medias and things like that has really enhanced the prospect base.
- Yeah, Robert.
- Yeah, and I guess I would add just designing a little bit more flex space into the development and having different options of different dining rooms, or bistros, or exterior dining, and stuff like that to just be able to spread out a little bit more. I feel that's kind of coming out of the COVID world a little bit, and then also the desire for some bigger units, maybe not so many studios, but maybe moving more towards one bedrooms and bigger units. Again, I think that's also kind of coming from that, if you're gonna be kind of held in place a little bit, having a little bit more room to move around is better.
- And Jessica, I know this really impacts what you do, right?
- Yes. So all of our fabrics are bleach cleanable. Everything is antimicrobial, washable, which I know is really important, but we don't want that to affect the aesthetic at all. So whatever treatments we need to do, any sort of applications that we need to make in order to have a safe environment is the goal at the end of the day.
- Yeah, of course. And COVID has changed so much in everyone's lives, but specifically, and certainly when it comes to senior living and what people are looking for in the future in terms of senior living. So thank you guys for answering that. I think this is a really good time now to take a look at some of the renderings. We can get a visual, get some eyes on what this is going to look like at the end of the day. So while we pull those up, guys, what can residents expect when they first walk in, we'll start there and then what will they have at their fingertips once they do call this community home?
- Well, I'll take when you first walk in, we have a very grand feeling. As you first walk in, we've got a double height space, we've got a sky bridge. When you walk underneath the sky bridge, we've got some really cool big chains that are gonna hang in front of that to help obscure the view of the second story a little bit, but be a really nice architectural feature. What guides you through the whole double height of this space is an architectural feature that has some solid color accents, some hood accents, some lighting just making you have that again, five star contemporary, very high end experience. And as you see, as you keep traveling through the statement doesn't stop, we have a very high emphasis on woods, and warmth, and lighting, and little twinkle spots that go throughout our whole property, maintaining that very contemporary yet residential feel 'cause we know that it's still somebody's house. We want the spaces to be usable, but still have that really good residential feel. Lots of textual furniture, full contemporary artwork. That really makes a statement. And Eric can definitely speak to this 'cause one thing that we know that Arbor's very known for is the concierge based lifestyle. And that's something that we really wanted to incorporate in this design.
- Okay. And Eric, as you prepared to speak to that, I'm not sure which one of you has the renderings and are willing to show that and share that on your screen. But we have somebody who immediately said, let's see the renderings.
- I have the video pulled up. I have a video I can try to share that. Let me see-
- I love it.
- What we can do here. Give me one moment.
- Great, thank you, Eric.
- No problem.
- Are we good there?
- Oh yes, there it is.
- [Melissa] Okay.
- [Eric] Okay.
- [Melissa] Go ahead. So as we're walking in, take us through this.
- [Jessica] So this is your front door brand experience and there you see our sky bridge and our architectural features that I mentioned, again used to the outside, heavy use of wood and some metal accents, the textural furniture, cleanability, washability again, but in a very high end way, really putting a nice emphasis on texture, really throughout the whole property. We had an underlying light coastal influence with this property. So you'll see some little things here and there that resemble things that make sure to dictate that we are in this area in Florida that's so beautiful and has access to the beach yet is not on the beach. Our fitness area that we have all kinds of equipment and also classes. This is our library. This is our salon. So full service salon. All the fixings. This is our theater.
- [Melissa] But we know the area itself is not a hard sell, right Jessica?
- [Jessica] No.
- [Melissa] What parts of that area? Because it seems every community is special and unique to where it is. And we have communities all over the country, but specifically, what did you pull from the beach theme that we are seeing in these renderings?
- [Jessica] We wanted it to not be, we're not trying to go beach house. We don't want this to be your typical beach house. This is a residence we wanna keep that very modern contemporary feel. We're really more of the yacht lifestyle here. So some of those yacht influences you'll see in some of the architecture that we have are ceiling finish in our dining room, definitely resemble some layers that you would have on a high end yacht. We have some geometric accents, we've got some designs in the carpet on the floor that are very topographical looking. Robert am I missing anything?
- No, I think that pretty much grabbed it all.
- Okay.
- Yeah, I got sound of that.
- Yeah, so we talk about the opening. So this is gonna be sort of a multi-phase opening. So first let's talk about that. And then we're gonna talk about timeline. So maybe Robert a good question for you in terms of timeline or Eric?
- Yes. I could start there. I mean, we're currently installing windows in the IL portion of the building, which is the first part of the building you'll see as you drive into the community, has a four story element and then mainly a three story with the rest of the building being at three stories in height. So we're currently putting windows in along that street frontage in the IL, then shortly thereafter, probably within the next three to four weeks, we'll start stacking the exterior and then get paint on it. So from an exterior standpoint, the building's gonna look pretty good in about 45 days. And then also in about 30 to 45 days, we'll start hanging drywall in the units, in the IL portion of the building. So again, making good progress with the building and all that. We self perform on the GC side and we have very strong professionals been doing a long time that kind of managed the project. We got sub base that we've used for years and years on a lot of our projects. So we have a good following and a good strong presence there. And then we were out front of things and knew about supply chain issues. So we made a big effort in ordering stuff early, getting containers, throwing stuff on site, months and months ahead of when we would need it. So we didn't have any kind of delays caused with the construction cycle.
- Gotcha. And yes, that is a very good point. And I wanna make sure that those who are watching understand that because we have had issues with the supply chain and that's for pretty much everybody on the construction side of things. So we know other projects in the area have not really met their expected times, which can be very frustrating for those people who are waiting to move in. They're already waiting and they're waiting even longer. So Robert, on that end, you feel like that we are going to be on time in terms of our particular timeline end of 2022. And then the second phase, beginning of 2023.
- Yes I do. Yep. I think we're in really good shape, again without any unforeseen issues. But as of right now, everything that's scheduled and sequenced out, I feel real good about. And then we've also with Jess, we got ahead of the game too, and really did the finishes and the furniture presentations early so that she was able to order that stuff well in advance as well. 'Cause obviously you don't wanna finish a building and then not be able to furnish it.
- We placed orders 12 months in advance for a lot of these things.
- Wow.
- So we are very ahead of the game. We will have everything ready and waiting for us, installing right on time.
- Yeah, I love to hear that. And Eric, maybe you can speak to telling our viewers about that sort of dual phase opening. So what are we gonna see in 2022 in terms of what's opening and then later in 2023?
- Sure. So the entire independent living will be open in December of 2022. So basically we will be starting December 1st if you will, we'll be starting to move in independent living residents. All the amenities will be, if we're taking in a resident, then all the amenities will be running. So the full dining room, the gym, the movie theater, the salon, our 24 hour concierge, our activities, and programming, and transportation. Once we open the doors for independent living residents, we'll have all the amenities running as well. So like we said, that's December of 2022. And then moving to the early part of 2023 will be the assisted living and memory care. Those have to go through state licensing and licensures and site visits and things like that. So there's a little bit of time after we open the independent living before we can take residents in the assisted living and memory care. And that's kind of a little lag there, but once we get those, we are anticipating, like we said, spring or so, the first few months of 2023.
- Gotcha. Okay. And maybe this is another question for you, Eric, and then we'll go to Robert on this. What has been the feedback so far from the city in terms of this community, the future residents who are looking forward to calling this place home, and what are some of the more common questions that you are hearing from people as it relates to the community?
- Sure. So in terms of the local community, they've been very warm, very exciting, just right across the street. We have the Morikami Museum and gardens, which is a huge, huge place where locals go to and seniors, especially. And we've made a great relationship with them, or we'll be using them a lot for different activities with residents. Residents will have a pass to go over there. So, we'll be doing a lot with the Morikami and that's been big in terms of the local community, but actual local residents have just, even the ones that stop by and just wanna find out what's going on. They're super excited with that area, as Robert was saying, in terms of the high end communities that have clubhouses and enhanced living, they're all excited that there's a senior living community that's being built, that's gonna give them that same lifestyle that they've had for the last 20 or 30 years, and be able to enjoy senior living and all the amenities, but not give up that enhanced living that they have.
- Perfect. Robert.
- And I would just add right to that with Eric too, is, providing a community that again, they don't have to move far away from where they've lived the majority of their lives and still then stay close with other friends or the restaurants or the retail that they've been accustomed and have enjoyed visiting. It's interesting. We get some questions if we can customize the units and change a two bedroom unit that has a shower and a tub to two showers. And obviously that stuff is very difficult to do once you're permitted, and under construction and stuff. So we can't necessarily accommodate a lot of those kind of things, but they've been very interested in what's the walking path situation around the building, is the interiors gonna look in the AL and MC similar to IL since our video just focuses on the IL, which it will, our design continues throughout the whole building, which I think is pretty important and pretty special for this project as well.
- Yeah. And then Jessica, anything that you could add on that end as well? I think those guys covered it.
- Gotcha. Gotcha. Eric, I do wanna ask this before we open it up for questions and we are getting to that point in our presentation, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, it's a good time to get those in, Eric with the offerings of this community, individuals have that really true opportunity to age in place. Can you tell our audience what that actually means as it relates to the Arbor Company and company and our promise to do just that?
- Sure. So we're a full continuum of care community in terms of independent living, and assisted living, and memory care. So a resident could come in as an independent resident, live several years in independent and start having a decline. There's different options, right? So they can age in place in their independent living apartment, if it's just minor assistance that they need, they can go through third party, still maintain their independence, stay in the independent living, and stay in their apartment and have their care needs done by third party. Or if their needs are more than that and then they really need to be in the right neighborhood for the right support, they can transition to the assisted living, and we're the assisted living. Then we have our care staff who assist with those activities of daily living. Our activities are geared a little differently for every neighborhood. So our activities are gonna be a little different in the independent living than they are in the assisted living and so on, and so forth in terms of the memory care. So then we have the memory care for residents who have dementia, Alzheimer's and need that special care and the memory care. So there's gonna be times where you're gonna have a couple and maybe they'll have two apartments. So they'll start off in independent living. And one of the spouses may need memory care at some point. They may actually end up getting an apartment in memory care as well. So that loved one could get the care they need, but the other spouse can stay in the independent living and enjoy their independence there.
- We do have actually quite a few people that do just that at Arbor communities throughout the country. And I find it really works for them. And that it's just good to have so many options for everyone out there. A little bit of feedback, love the pool, cabanas, and the dedicated yoga movement studio. Yes, it's all gorgeous. It reminds me of your sort of vacation villas that you can just enjoy and have a wonderful time in and wish you could stay forever. And in this case you can, so John's question here guys, can we see resident units in the renderings or plans?
- Well, I know that we've done lots of renderings and all the plans are available on the website. So specifically you can access the website to get lots and lots of information, or if you want more personalized guidance, I would talk to Eric.
- Yeah, I would encourage anyone who really wants to get that in depth and look 'cause we have so many different styles of apartments to really stop by. We have a full leasing center with full 3D renderings, renderings of each apartment style square footages and our team can really get in depth and give a good insight on each individual apartment and what they might be interested in. So I would say that would probably be the best way to go into detail about the apartments.
- Okay. And for those who are watching now and are just trying to think in their mind, how am I going make this work? And from where I live now, and this square footage I've got to what I could have there. So what are we looking at in terms of square footage for these specific living spaces?
- Yeah. So our independent living, our largest is a two bedroom, it's 1100 square feet. And then we have everything from just a regular one bedroom, one bath, and those right around 600 to 700 square feet to start there.
- Okay. Perfect. And again, good time for questions, guys, if you have any about the community, I think that the renderings we have seen so far are wonderful. Jessica, do you have any renderings that you have with you just specifically of closeups of those sort of the things you can see, touch, and feel. The furniture, maybe the art, things up close, the textures. Do you have anything that we can show our audience today?
- I honestly think that the virtual tour gives the best impression of the entire space. It is very photo realistic, and it is based off of our actual selections. So artwork selections, window treatment selections, furniture selections, they're all based off of exactly what Robert and I have pulled together. So that virtual tour I know is also available on the website if you wanna stop and start it, or get a little bit more of a zoomed in view on anything. But I would definitely look very indepthly at the virtual tour. And just to elaborate a little bit more on the assisted living not being shown, it would feel like a duplicate because it feels exactly the same and that was done very intentionally. So if the room is a little bit smaller, it might be a smaller room version of the same design that we did in the independent living, but we've carried the same aesthetic through the whole property.
- And I'll say also Melissa, that, if they do have a chance to come by the leasing center, they've done a fantastic job of putting it together. And even some of the furniture that's in the leasing center will be the same furniture that's being utilized in the community. So you really get an idea as well if you visit the leasing center, it's just spectacular. And it flows right into what the community's gonna look like as well.
- Sure. And you mentioned coming from Wisconsin and then down to Florida, if somebody is maybe up north and thinking, this is where I wanna retire and they can't come to the leasing center where can we direct our potential new residents?
- I would say definitely our website, you get a ton of information through the website, you get the videos, then our team can also do walkthroughs of the website as well, and then send some additional information.
- Can we leave that website in the chat box for everybody to see, maybe the link specifically that they can find it? I know there are numerous Arbor Company communities. We wanna make sure we get people to the right one. So we will leave that in the chat box. I think we can get that there for our viewers, again, great time guys, for questions. If you have anything for our panel here, it sounds like you guys have thought this out in terms of having everything ready a year in advance, to make sure that the opening will be on time. And I guess Robert, for you, a question here, we talk about the latest and greatest in senior living. And we mentioned that word tired in some of the older communities when people think of Florida and senior living, it's one of the states that you feel like there's a senior living community almost on every street corner. There are so many to choose from. And so many options why this community, why should someone choose this community, the Arbor at Delray?
- And again, I'll end up probably repeating myself, but again, I just think the fit and finish, the elegant contemporary, very new type of materials and finishes, they're gonna be in the building, you can shop at few different properties, kind of the older ones and what we're gonna be offering. And I think you'll see a drastic difference between the two. And then you follow that up with the Arbor group being such a great operator, and great reputation, and the local team, having the knowledge and being in this market. I just think it's the full package. I think the building will set us apart, but I think what'll really set us apart is the team that's gonna be there on site and the residents experience every day.
- Gotcha. And let's talk about that resident experience. So what can people see, do, feel on a day to day basis living here at this particular community?
- Yeah. So one of the exciting parts of this project is I have a blank canvas if you will, in terms of the team. So I'll have a hand in each hire that we have at the Arbor at Delray. So whether that's starting with the managers and department coordinators, all the way to the direct line staff. So the Arbor at Delray, we're always looking for the top in the industry in terms of whether it's managers or direct line staff, but your day to day feel is gonna be, like we said, we have 24 hour concierge. We have a full engagement program with even a fitness, somebody who just deals in the fitness part. So exercise classes, things like that, top of their line dining program. So we'll have a chef, we'll have a dining room manager, we'll have a food and beverage director, we'll have full service in the dining room, so menus and servers. So there'll be all those different amenities in terms of transportation. We'll have drivers, we'll have a bus, we'll have a vehicle. So there'll be full transportation for doctors' appointments. There will be transportation to shopping. So Publix and Target and those type of places, so full service, full amenities that you're gonna find at the Arbor at Delray.
- Okay. And this could be for Jessica. It could be for Robert. How was this particular building designed with safety in mind? I know that that's sort of the top of a lot of people's list.
- Robert I'll take that one. Slip coefficients, and wheel traffic concerns, and the movement of materials between different spaces. Those transitions are very important to us. So I've been working on senior living for a long time and have learned a lot of lessons and we've applied every single one of them to this building. So making sure that when you're going from a tile to a carpet transition, that there's no visual or no feelable transition across the two spaces, making sure that you've got lean rails on all of our corridors. So if you are trying to get from your apartment down to the dining room that you have the ability to do that, having little stop zones, if you needed to take a break, if you were walking from your apartment and it's just more of a distance than what you'd wanna do all on one trip, you can definitely do that. And I also know that Arbor's team is great about making sure that resident's needs are met. If there's anything that happens, if something, if the wall gets dinged or if a carpet gets dirty or damaged, they're right on top of it taking care of it all.
- So a great look internally inside the building. What about outside? I did hear a walking path. That sounds wonderful. The walkability, what are we looking at from that perspective?
- Yeah, so we have a small lake on the site that'll have kind of a lake pavilion, as you would say, kind of a sitting area there with also a little walking path along that with some benches and that sort of thing with a fountain, kind of water fountain in the lake itself. We'll have a dog park, we have a bike storage room, there's connection down to Morikami Museum. So those sort of things.
- And speaking of dogs, pet friendly, Eric, tell our viewers about that. I know that can be nerve wracking when you wanna look for a place to retire and senior living and you find out, wow, I can't take my dog or my cat, what's the situation there?
- Sure. So that we are pet friendly. So any resident who wants to bring their pet along is more than welcome. Obviously the biggest thing is we'll need paperwork on the pet. So they're recent shots from their veterinarian. Other than that, it just has to be cared for. So the resident or a third party that they may hire has to be able to come in and car for the pet. Other than that, it would just be a case by case basis. If it's a really large animal or if there's any aggression with it, but overall there's no issues with the resident pet.
- And we do find that pets at our communities end up being sort of the mascot, they're very well known. They've become very well known. Everybody knows who they are, very lovable and enjoyable. We do have a question here from Hillary, what will the capacity be for IL, Al and MC, memory care? So in independent living, assisted living, and memory care.
- So we're gonna have 187 total apartments in the community, 89 in the independent living, 76 in the assisted living, and 22 in the memory care. That doesn't mean we won't have more than 187 residents when we're full because there's gonna be couples. We do have three semi-private apartments in the memory care. So there could actually be 25 residents in the memory care. So apartment wise, doorknobs in the apartment, 187 but realistically, when we're full, we'll probably be over the 200 mark in terms of total residents.
- Okay. And we always talk about sort of those exclusive residents. The ones who get in first, they anchor the communities. So what are we looking at from that perspective from individuals who literally just can't wait, they've put those deposits down. How can somebody go about doing that?
- So we do have residents who've already deposited and committed to moving into the community, which is great. And we have what's called a founder's club for the first 20 depositors, they get some some goodies like the $2,000 off their first month's rent. They get a $2,000 credit towards their moving expenses coming into the community. They get a chef's party for 12 that'll be cooked by our executive chef in the private dining room. They'll get four passes a month for a year for guests to come in and enjoy a dinner or lunch with them in the dining room. They'll also get some Arbor at Delray swag. So T-shirt, or, I mean, a polo shirt, a hat, those type of things, and then a special little decal on their door as well. So there's some little extras there for being one of the first to come in. And like we said, we are doing the deposits. Come in once you're ready to commit, you get to do a check or a credit cards and very, very limited paperwork. And then you're on as one of our depositors. The exciting thing is that, we do have several months before we're gonna be opening, but we're doing a lot of different events. We've already had one depositor luncheon. So what we're doing is we're getting all our depositors together. They're getting to introduce themselves to each other before they even move in and make relationships, and just get excited about moving into the community. So throughout the process, it's not just like you give your deposit and we don't see it again until December. There's a lot of engagement, a lot of things that we're gonna be doing in the meantime, whether it's art classes in the leasing center or going off site and having a lunch or dinner. So there's a lot that's going on even before they move in the community.
- Yeah, and if this is someone's first experience into senior living, when they hear about all these things or thinking chef, all of these wonderful goodies and amenities. And so can we talk about, what's included, what is inclusive and what are we looking at in terms of price range and everything that, that individual will get for what they're paying for and how that maybe relates to their current housing situation and what they're paying for, for that?
- Yeah. So our monthly rent includes pretty much everything that you need in the community. So it's gonna include all your amenities, so access to the gyms and the pools and all the different amenities, the movie theater, all those things are included your monthly rent. In addition, we will have cable and wifi in the apartment as well. So that's included in the monthly rent. Your dining so you get breakfast full, hot, and cold breakfast every morning in the dining room. And then dinner as well. Lunch is à la carte. We'll have the full dining room and then a small bistro as well that you can get light lunch, or you can have something in your apartment. Transportation, the 24 hour concierge, all that's included in your monthly rent, pretty much everything, except for if you wanna landline in your apartment, land phone line, if you wanna go to the salon, get your hair done, your nails done, that's something that would be in addition. And then obviously if you go offsite to do any shopping or go to a theater or something like that, if we have an activities outside the community, that would be resident responsibility, but that's what's included the monthly fees.
- Gotcha. And I do wanna touch on this because food is important. It can make or break someone's decision in senior living. If the food isn't good they're probably not gonna live there. I can say the food is wonderful at the Arbor Company, we do take great care to ensure that sodium is down. That it's healthy. Your square meals in terms of nutrition when it comes to memory care, though, I think the award-winning Dining with Dignity program is something that I'd like to touch on for those particular residents. What is that? What does that mean? What does that look like Eric?
- Well, we're always looking to keep the dignity of a resident, especially in the dining room. So whatever that means in terms of assisting a resident through the dining process. And when you're talking about memory care, there's a lot of different training that's done, especially with the Arbor Company. So we have specific training that we do with our team members, especially in terms of dining, whether that's different cues or how you speak to a resident or how you cue them to help themselves, to help them feed themselves. So in terms of just an overall vision, there is a special dining program, special training we have, but there's so many little nuances to it, to get into in this call. But like I said, there's a lot of different trainings that we do with our team members to make sure that they maintain their dignity and as much independence as possible, especially in the dining room.
- And the meal specifically that you would see in independent living, the chefs have turned them into sort of bite size hors d'oeuvres if you will, it's the same meal, it's just made where someone can eat that food and they can have the same thing. It helps with the swallowing. It helps they can use their fingers to pick it up. If they don't have the dexterity necessarily in their fingers to pick up a knife or a fork, they can have the same food too. So it's a wonderful program. And I do encourage those of you who are looking into memory care. You've got a video on that, www.seniorlivinglive.com. It is Dining with Dignity, wonderful program and you will see that here at this community as well. So let's talk about staff because we touched on that just now, Eric, what is happening there at the community as it's being built to ensure that the best of the best will be in place from a staffing perspective for these residents?
- Right now we have the three of us as the staff for the Arbor at Delray at this point. Towards late in the summer is when we'll start to look at recruiting and hiring our direct department heads. So that'll be your executive chef, your food and beverage director, your director of maintenance, your business office manager. That'll be the next set of hires. The good thing is it is a difficult labor market out there right now. But the good thing that I have is I do have with my experience and my past, I have a lot of different people that I've worked with in the past that, that are looking for something like the Abor at Delray to pursue their career. So I've had a lot of phone calls, a lot of different things on a weekly basis from people just trying to finding out when we're gonna be opening. So I have my own little pool of people I've worked with in the past that would fit right in with the community that we'll be working on. But at that point then we'll be moving towards training those department heads. And then as we get closer to opening the doors is when we'll start hiring the direct line staff with those coordinators.
- Okay. Yeah. And one thing I could say about the Arbor Company, we try very hard to turn over every rock to find the best of the best in terms of staffing for people who truly that it's a calling for them to do this kind of work, especially in memory care and assisted living where it's just crucial. So I appreciate that answer. And now, in terms of maybe outside help for positions, we at Arbor have many communities that have FOX rehabilitation or rehabilitative services that come into the communities but what is set up here specifically?
- So we're still, we do anticipate having a home health company on site, private duty we have insight, doctors that are be willing to come to the community and see residents in the community. If they're willing to, some of them have had their doctor for the last 20 or 30 years and they don't wanna make that change, but some of them want the convenience of not having to go out to a doctor's office and seeing the doctor there on site. So we are doing that. And what we're doing right now is interviewing and having discussions with different doctors and different companies to see who's gonna fit best for our community. So who that's gonna be, we don't have that answer right now, but we will have those amenities in the community in terms of therapy and private duties if needed and internist, and podiatrist, and audiologist will all come to the community if a resident wants that convenience.
- Yeah. Gotcha. We have a little less than 15 minutes till the top of the hour. We were gonna take this to the top of the hour. And so a great time to get in those final questions if you're watching. As we start to wrap this up, Jessica, Robert, any parting thoughts about this particular community and your partnership specifically with the Arbor Company.
- Robert you go first.
- Yeah, no, I mean, I'm super excited. I think the building design itself was well put together. I'm excited to see the different phases of the construction taking place, super excited to have both you the Arbor Companies and Sagestone on the team, been great to work with very professional, very seasoned professionals and looking very forward to get into completion and opening the community to the residents.
- Yeah, I'll second that. We're very excited about getting residents in there to be able to see the life, get brought into our spaces that we've worked so hard on. This is a long time building. There's been a lot of preparation and a lot of love and care that's gone into all phases of the process from the very beginning when we were just talking about programming and then all the way to basically the end, whenever we're installing the very last piece of furniture and the residents are moving in. So Sagestone has had a long standing partnership with the Arbor Company. And we feel very grateful that we've been included on this one with Alliance and Arbor also.
- Yeah, and Jessica, I do have to ask, it's kind of a fun question because you have had a great partnership with the Arbor Company. We've seen so many of your beautiful visions in our communities. Are these like children to you, you have your favorites in different ways. And if so, how would this one rank near the top?
- No, you absolutely cannot pick between your children, but you always do have a favorite.
- Anything in particular about this community that you're just like, yeah, I knocked that one out of the park.
- I think your first perspective when you walk in is gonna be really hard for anyone else to beat it because it's absolutely stunning with still maintaining the views to the outside in our courtyard. I mean, it's very different from any other property that we as Sagestone have ever designed before. And we're very proud of how that first impression is really gonna knock your thoughts off.
- And I won't make Jessica the only person who asked to answer this, I'm gonna throw that to you, Robert. And then Eric, your favorite thing about this community.
- Yeah. Wow. That's kind of hard to pick just one. I think the pool courtyard, again, I think that first impression when you walk in the front door with a feature wall that we have and everything, and then the large windows that look out to the pool area, which we're very fortunate in Florida, we can do very lush. Landscaping that looks good, day one. It doesn't need five years to grow, with wood slat cabanas, with TVs, the pool, there's barbecue grills, there's a putting green. So I just think that and a lot of the amenities focus into that courtyard, the gym, and the yoga, and the dining, kinda I'll focus to that, kind of central courtyard. So I think that's gonna be very impactful.
- And all those things you can do year round because it's Florida.
- Exactly. So we love that. Eric, you go ahead.
- Just picking back off of what Robert said, in terms of that whole hub of the courtyard, just being the, I think the heartbeat of the community it's gonna be, you have so many apartments that face that between the barbecues, and the pool there, and the different activities we can hold out there. I just think it's gonna be a huge part of the community and just have that vibe to it. But from the first time I ever saw a video rendering, when I first got hired of the community and the contemporary look and just the not of your normal senior living feel to it is what really drew me to the community in this project. It's gorgeous. And it's just nothing like you've seen in terms of senior living.
- And if you like the renderings, I will say again, just having seen all the work Jessica and her team have done in the past, Robert, it is going to come to life just like that. So it is going to look very close to those photos. And I know that's all we've got to go on right now, but that's why we had this webinar today to give you a little bit of a chance to get behind the scenes, look of this particular community and ask any questions you may have. Guys, thank you so much for being with us to give us that behind the scenes look, and I know it's just gonna be an extraordinary community. I am so excited from what I have seen today, and I know that our future residents are as well. Thank you for being with us.
- Absolutely.
- Thank you very much.
- Yeah, thank you. Now, if you wanna find out more about the Arbor at Delray, please visit the website. You can see that there in the chat box, you can also give us a call at 559-4364. Thank you all so much for watching and being a part of Senior Living Live. Have a great day, everybody.
- Bye.
