Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of essays written by a recent retiree to North Carolina. If you would like to share your story, please send it us at: Essay. Please limit to 500 words. Your full name will be kept confidential.

Why I Retired to North Carolina

Evelyn S., Danbury, NC

As a child, I was fortunate enough to spend many summers and long school breaks with family members in North Carolina, and my love for this beautiful state began as a 6-year old girl who loved being able to climb on rocks, walk barefoot through creeks, and hike through the woods to discover my next treasure. I was fascinated with the simplicity of North Carolina and the hospitality of its residents, and even as a child, I felt comfortable with the slower pace and the variety of wonderful things to do. When I would return to my home in the Northeast, I always looked forward to my next big adventure in the beautiful state of North Carolina.  

Later in my life, after my husband and I raised our family, finished our careers, and began planning our next phase in life, it felt natural to me that we would choose North Carolina as our home to spend our “mature” years. We are a very active “redeployed” couple, and for the past 5 years, we have embraced all that North Carolina has to offer and have hiked trails at Hanging Rock State Park, camped at Pilot Mountain, and explored the beauty of Stone Mountain. We have discovered an unexpected love for Lexington barbecue, watched dolphins at Sunset Beach, and even visited the “hometown” of Andy Griffith!

From the mountains to the beaches, we do enjoy moving at a slower pace now, but also appreciate the flexibility and number of activities that North Carolina has to offer. Since I began to explore my artistic side before we retired, I now have the perfect backdrop and constant inspiration to paint, draw, and capture my artistic thoughts – the beauty of a rhododendron on a hike; the unexpected find of a sweeping waterfall; the power of a sunrise on a beach – all treasures of this beautiful state. We are also taking advantage of the many beautiful golf courses all across North Carolina, and we both appreciate the incredible beauty that surrounds us on every course we have played so far.

Choosing to retire in North Carolina has been one of the best choices we ever made. We have the best of both worlds – the mountains & the ocean – and I now hope to give our grandchildren the opportunity to develop a special love for this state as well...and all that it has to offer.

New CCRC Planned for Oak Island, NC

Source: Senior Housing News

A group of investors and real estate developers are planning a massive master-planned senior living community in North Carolina that is expected to exceed $500 million in development costs and will encompass more than 2,000 acres. 

Plans for The Charles, in Oak Island, N.C., include up to 2,000 units of single- and multi-family residences spanning cottages, condos, and town homes located in a mixed-use development spearheaded by Legacy Community Partners and funded with private equity. 

Another approximately 250 units will be designated for assisted living care, memory care, and skilled nursing, all located on a 2,100-acre site in Brunswick County. 

Additional features for the community, announced this week, include integrated family and senior medicine, occupational and physical therapists, in-home care, and medical equipment providers along with standard senior living community features such as on-campus dining and wellness facilities. 

The massive community will have three primary uses: healthcare, senior living, and retail/office mixed-use buildings, says Robert Duffy, part of Legacy Community Partners and former general manager of golf and active adult retirement community St. James Plantation. The healthcare, retail, and mixed-use components of the development won’t be gated.

“People who live in the senior living portion will have access to [those] as an amenity, but it will be open to the public,” Duffy told SHN. The Charles, which is targeting the region’s large—and growing—55+ demographic will not operate under an entrance fee model; rather, residents will be able to choose between renting or leasing the independent living units, which will start at about $250,000. 

In addition to Duffy, the Legacy team includes information technology entrepreneur Chris Maynor and healthcare and senior care consultant and developer Gene Vaughan, who has extensive background in senior living development.

Duffy met Vaughan several years ago when he was looking into senior living development options in his capacity as general manager of St. James Plantation. Although nothing was pursued at the time, Duffy says when he came across the land now slated for The Charles, he knew it held more opportunity than just housing development or any one use. 

“Considering the location and market opportunities, we knew immediately that healthcare was definitely a need, and there was a lot of pent up demand,” he says. “The senior care component was huge.”

With his background in retirement community management, Duffy says he often encountered situations where a community didn’t offer the full span of care, so residents needing healthcare had to leave, in many cases permanently. 

“[The Charles] will be a seamless community,” he says of the living and care options that will be available throughout the continuum.

The development and ownership team paid cash to acquire most of the site for The Charles in February 2014, so there’s no public debt on the property, says Duffy. The project’s impact on the tax base will exceed $700 million, he says, with actual construction and development costs upwards of $500 million. Development funding is all coming from private equity sources.

The project already has received zoning and site plan approvals from Oak Island and the team expects to have the first healthcare building open in the next 18 months, followed by the senior living components, then retail and mixed-use along with other community amenities and recreational facilities.

The massive independent living units will take several years to completely develop, Duffy projects, as it will likely take several years to go through absorption.

“It’s a long-term project and opportunity,” he says. “In the last year, it’s been a very focused effort of mine. I’m not working on anything specific other than putting together a business plan. We found the right equity partner rather quickly, closed on the property rather quickly, and started right after we closed.”

The development’s business plan didn’t get traction until after the land acquisition closed in February, he adds. “It’s been a whole lot of preparation for many, many years, and now we’re hitting the ground fast,” Duffy says.

New CCRC Construction Projects Announced

Kisco Senior Living Targets Mixed-Use Communities for $160M Pipeline

Source: Senior Housing News

A California-based senior living owner, operator, and developer is differentiating its $160 million new development pipeline by locating all the projects in mixed-use, master-planned communities. Kisco Senior Living, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, has another $50-70 million slated for expansions and renovations at five existing communities in addition to the ground-up projects.

In North Carolina, there’s the Cardinal at North Hills in Raleigh, N.C., which Kisco says will be their flagship community upon completion. Construction on the approximately $85 million Cardinal will begin in the next couple months, although it won’t be finished until sometime in 2016′s second quarter. 

The 225-unit rental CCRC will have 165 independent living apartments and a separate 60-unit healthcare center with assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing. The campus will also feature a 35,000-square-foot lifestyle clubhouse connected to the independent living buildings, three different dining venues, a spa and wellness center, and other features. 

“It’s a really upscale project,” Mitch Brown says. “This is a vibrant, amazing area that has offices, hotels, retail, fitness/health clubs, condos and apartments… When you walk out your front door, you’re in the middle of this amazing array of restaurants and places for recreation and shopping.”

“These are places where the next waves of people entering our space want to be,” says Brown, himself a boomer. “Nobody wants to feel isolated, away from the larger sense of community. People want to be in places where there are fun things to do, multiple generations, close to their churches, clubs, friends, family.”  

SearStone Retirement Community Opens in Cary

Source: Triangle Business Journal

With its new license in hand, the first residents of the long-awaited SearStone continuing care retirement community in Cary opened for business on Nov. 1. The North Carolina Department of Insurance on Oct. 28 issued a CCRC license to SearStone, the first CCRC to receive a license in North Carolina since 2008. The project has been a mission of Cary architect Bill Sears for more than a decade. The community is located on the site of his family’s farm where he grew up at the southeast corner of Davis Drive and High House Road.

And among the first residents are his parents, John and Maggie Belle Sears.

Bill Sears says his parents have been living in a house nearby last last few years and have been watching the construction progress at SearStone, land that Maggie Belle Stone Sears’ family had been working for eight generations.

“I got a little emotional last year during our groundbreaking ceremony because I know what SearStone means to me and my family, and I know what we went through to get there,” said Bill Sears. “Today, I am overjoyed and extremely grateful to our depositors who recognized our vision and stuck with us.”

Sears says that SearStone will also likely be the place that he and his wife eventually retire. Joining the elder Sears couple at SearStone this week are Al and Greta Port and Alex and Marilyn Knittel. SearStone has 169 units that are available for sale. As of July, about 86 percent of the units had been sold with 23 homes remaining.

Only 19 homes remain now, says SearStone executive director Christopher Romick.

SearStone is owned by the nonprofit Samaritan Housing Foundation and employs about 20 people. Employment is expected to reach about 225 people when the facility reaches capacity.