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Rob Kretzinger is an idea man with an appetite on a gray morning that plays out like a scripted commercial for what his organization calls an “active life community.”

Many of us would call Edgewater a retirement home, but we’d probably be doing it a disservice.

Kretzinger, president and CEO of WesleyLife, which developed the resort-like community in West Des Moines, is pondering breakfast and commenting with some awe about a dinner the previous evening for Edgewater residents.

As the dinner wrapped up about 9 p.m., “some of the ladies said, ‘We’re going to have a pool party,'” Kretzinger said, adding, “I’m not in my grandma’s retirement home anymore.”

He’s right. Edgewater is an $88 million complex of villas, independent-living apartments where the residents influence the interior décor, as well as assisted-living quarters and a nursing center that divides into four units connected by a hub.

About 60 percent of the 151 apartments are filled, with a target of 75 percent occupancy by the end of the year.

While Kretzinger ponders breakfast, geese lock their wings and land on an Edgewater pond. An artificial waterfall gurgles nearby. An elderly couple take a stroll on the sprawling grounds.

His breakfast of bacon and eggs will be cooked in a bistro on the first floor of the main lobby. The bistro is open to the public and apparently it has been a busy place, because the cook can’t fill Kretzinger’s request for wheat toast.

The toast isn’t much of an issue for Kretzinger, who has spent most of his career in the nonprofit world of elder care. He has an entrepreneur’s quest for growth and new opportunities, but profits are the least of his concerns.

WesleyLife is the name adopted in July by what had been known as Wesley Retirement Services, an organization founded in 1947 by the SouthIowa Conference of the Methodist Church to provide care for its retired ministers.

With the elderly population booming and its needs changing, WesleyLife has decided to pursue opportunities for growth.

Kretzinger credits a revamped, all-volunteer executive board for much of the new focus.

“We have a grid that says we need someone with a development background or a physician or a community activist. We look at gender, opinion, geography,” Kretzinger said.

WesleyLife wants diverse opinions from the board, opinions that don’t always jibe with the ideas coming from Kretzinger and his management team.

“Those intersections of where they come together is where exciting decisions happen,” Kretzinger said.

He doubts that a project as ambitious as Edgewater would have happened without the new makeup of the board.

And, the board has agreed to spread WesleyLife’s reach beyond Central Iowa.

The organization recently entered an affiliation agreement with Epworth Villa, a retirement village in Oklahoma City. The agreement is something of a trial run to determine whether the two organizations have enough similarities to merge. WesleyLife will provide capital and other resources.

Kretzinger said WesleyLife is constantly approached by organizations from across the country that are attracted by its financial strength and faith-based mission of providing community services.

WesleyLife also has acquired the elder care services of Pella Regional Health Center in Iowa. The arrangement will allow WesleyLife to focus on senior living while the health center focuses on health care.

“We think this is a model that will be replicated across the Midwest,” Kretzinger said.

He cautioned that WesleyLife is not trying to bail out troubled companies, but is interested only in acquiring or affiliating with faith-based organizations that have sound practices but might lack “vision.”

The WesleyLife board has had “spirited” discussions on rescuing financially troubled organizations, but at present has no plans to do so, Kretzinger said.

“We can acquire a lot of weaker organizations, but that’s not our strategy,” he said.

For now, WesleyLife is interested in organizations that have a strong reputation, are tops in their market, but need a larger entity to help capitalize them over a five- to 10-year period of growth, Kretzinger said.

“We want to make sure that our growth doesn’t outpace our people,” he said.

WesleyLife employs about 1,100 people in Central Iowa, including 800 in Greater Des Moines. It projects that its work force will grow to 1,500 next year and increase “exponentially” after that. In 2004, WesleyLife had 700 workers serving 1,000 people. It currently serves about 3,500 either through its care centers or its meals-on-wheels and home-care operations.

Edgewater currently has fewer than 100 employees, but Kretzinger expects that number to grow to about 250. The current workers include a chef for its formal dining room as well as a health-care director, nurses and other support staff.

Edgewater also could provide the anchor for future growth in what has been known as the Michael’s Landing development at 88th Street and Mills Civic Parkway.

At present, Edgewater’s neighbors are a handful of homes and a lot of empty land, most of it owned by banks.

That empty land provides scenic views for residents, but someday could host carefully planned development that doesn’t rely on a robust economy for success, Kretzinger said.

For the time being, he is no hurry for the land to sprout other buildings.

“The lack of additional housing does not impact us whatsoever,” Kretzinger said. “The fact that there is very little out there is very nice. People like the view.

“We think this is a positive because there is a chance to create a whole new vision. There is an opportunity to create an intentional community that has a longer-term outlook, that is purposeful.”

Purposeful, much like the long-term view of WesleyLife.

Even the name change had a purpose, Kretzinger said.

“We think there are two dirty words, ‘senior’ and ‘retirement,’ and we kind of flushed them away,” he said. “The reality is that people never really retire; they leave one job, but it’s their desire to continue to have some purposeful involvement in life.”