A WesleyLife could fit in the East Village
KENT DARR Nov 15, 2016 | 9:09 pm
3 min read time
633 wordsAll Latest News, Health and Wellness, Real Estate and DevelopmentRob Kretzinger isn’t listening to “all the noise” that rises from investors and developers and demographers who measure the market for senior living, but one sound he does hear carries to the Johnston offices of WesleyLife all the way from downtown Des Moines (the East Village, to be specific).
Kretzinger is the president and CEO of WesleyLIfe, the nearly 70-year-old organization that was formed to provide housing for elderly Methodist ministers in Iowa and has evolved into a provider of multiple services that encourage healthy and independent lifestyles for a demographic that has turned age 55.
Going into the Great Recession, Kretzinger and his board of directors were in the throes of developing an upscale senior living community at what was then called Michael’s Landing in West Des Moines. As with a lot of signature Greater Des Moines projects, this development involved a land swap and big visions.
On the one hand, Regency companies wanted to develop a self-contained community among rolling hills that blended into the Raccoon River valley west of 88th Street in West Des Moines. An upscale senior living community could be home to grandparents and empty nesters who could live near children and grandchildren living in the development.
WesleyLife owned land on the southern part of the development. The land was attractive because it was filled with bur oak trees, as was the organization’s signature Wesley Acres retirement community on Grand Avenue in Des Moines.
But the views from the northern reaches of Michael’s Landing were spectacular, providing a lookout from atop gently sloping hills that descended to the river valley.
WesleyLife, at the time called Wesley Retirement Services, swapped land with Regency and set to work on a $90 million development called Edgewater that provided amenities such as a performing arts space; a bistro and pub; fitness and aquatic centers; a market and restaurant-style dining, including a private dining area; a library; an art studio; and a chapel. Read more about Edgewater on BusinessRecord.com.
Edgewater was to be a joint venture between Regency and WesleyLIfe. Regency was out of business by April 2008 and WesleyLife pursued the project on its own.
WesleyLife recently started work on a 98,000-square-foot addition, and it has more room to grow, having bought additional land in the area. Edgewater, with high-end entry fees, draws the majority of its residents from outside Greater Des Moines. It is 100 percent occupied and has a waiting list. About 75 percent of the new addition, with 34 independent-living apartments, has been sold out.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit also has announced plans for the Brio senior living community that will occupy about one-third of a 63-acre parcel that WesleyLife purchased southwest of the intersection of Northwest 86th Street and Northwest 70th Avenue in Johnston. As the marketing material says, brio means gusto. People of any age are entitled to “live with spirit and vigor.”
Brio will have 50 independent-living apartments, 32 assisted-living apartments, 18 memory-care units and 18 skilled-nursing units. There will not be entry fees. Instead, residents will pay a monthly rent. The design will be “conceptual modern farmhouse.” It should be finished by fall 2017.
And that brings us to the East Village.
“WesleyLife has to be part of the vibrancy of that community,” Kretzinger said.
Details are few, but WesleyLife wants to bring its vision for people “55 and better” closer to the downtown market. Though developers frequently talk about attracting a mix of millennials and empty-nesters to the downtown market, Kretzinger believes that “seniors are always the last to be considered” in plans for residential housing.
Instead, seniors can lead “healthy, engaged lives” in the East Village.
The area is well-suited for a WesleyLife project, Kretzinger said.
“It’s an area where we can really get our creative juices flowing,” he said.
Read more about WesleyLife on BusinessRecord.com
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