Colorado Real Estate Journal -
A distinctive senior housing and health care facility is under way in Steamboat Springs and designed to be a model for development for all future resort and isolated communities around the country. Construction recently started on Casey’s Pond Senior Community, a 117,487-square-foot facility comprising 144 units of three progressive levels of care. “We believe this will be the model for future resort and isolated communities senior housing design around the country,” Charles Gee, a principal with Pearl Senior Living, who handles real estate and development for the firm, said of Casey’s Pond, noting nothing of its quality and magnitude is like it in the region. Pearl Senior Living is developing and managing Casey’s Pond, which is owned by not-for-profit Colorado Senior Residences Inc. “We are very pleased with the efforts of all participants in bringing us through concept, design, financing and now construction. We look forward to its opening,” said Colorado Senior Residences board chairman Karl Gills. The Yampa Valley Medical Center provided seed money for the project, which was key to the development taking shape, added Tom Finley, also a principal with Pearl Senior Living. Additional financing for construction was provided with tax-exempt bonds and development was aided by a soft resort market, making the acquisition of land not too cost-prohibitive. Yampa Valley Medical Center currently operates the Doak Walker Care Center, a 59-bed skilled nursing facility on its campus. Upon completion of Casey’s Pond, residents and staff of the Doak Walker facility will move from the Yampa Valley Medical Center site to its new single-story, 60-unit space at Casey’s Pond. In addition to the Doak Walker center, Casey’s Pond campus will include 34 independent living units, 30 assisted-living units and 26 memory care units in the varied-height development slated for completion in fall 2013. Casey’s Pond Senior Community at 2855 Owl Hoot, off U.S. Highway 40 and Walton Creek Road, is situated on a five-acre parcel next to Casey’s Pond and city park, and a quarter-mile from the gondola. The senior facility will feature a “neighborhood” concept with living areas, a salon and spa, community center, workout facility, multiple eating venues, bistro, full-service dining room, garden, fire pits, fireplaces, a seating amphitheater facing the pond and a trail system providing access to the neighboring amenities, added Gee. As well, units will feature quartz, granite, upgraded appliances, operable windows and a variety of layouts. “It will be very intimate and boutique like,” Gee continued. “The innovative part of its design is it’s reflective of the rural mountain character of Steamboat Springs.” “This was a great design project where we were able to utilize the existing site conditions to incorporate into the overall project design, including connecting to Steamboat’s existing trail system,” agreed VTBS Architects’ Gary Prager, AIA, LEED AP, partner-in-charge of the Denver office. Prager also noted that the building design is reflective of mountain architecture and integrates the overall design into the existing water features, including Casey’s Pond, with a view of the Steamboat Ski Area and the Yampa Valley. As well, the building was designed to capture the mountain aesthetics while addressing the extreme climate changes frequently experienced in the Steamboat area. Adolfson & Peterson Construction is the general contractor for the project, which broke ground in May. The age-restricted community for 55 and up will open its marketing office in mid-October. Casey’s Pond Senior Community will be a strictly rental community with no entrance fee. The developers anticipate the facility will draw existing residents of Steamboat Springs, Routt County and the northwest Colorado quadrant as well as parents of existing residents. Casey’s Pond represents the first project by Pearl Senior Living, however, its principals, which also includes Phil Shapiro, have extensive history and experience in the development and management of senior housing and other commercial developments. “From day one, it really has been a community-driven project,” said Finley. “The board of directors and advisory committee comprises local business leaders and other individuals who have really been driving the process and making Casey’s Pond fit in well with the larger mountain community.”