Senior Housing Towers Open in Manhattan and Brooklyn

The New York Times – Several new high-end projects come to New York City, with some pandemic adjustments.

For decades, 70-year-olds in search of age-focused housing in New York were often out of luck. A lack of supply sent them to the suburbs. But now as land prices dip and demand ticks up, developers are adding buildings in prime New York neighborhoods for the post-retirement set.

They’re arriving at a difficult time, as the devastation wrought by Covid-19 has made some leery of group living. Yet as the senior population swells, analysts and developers believe the sector is poised to grow, as others seek ways to avoid isolation.

“The next year or two will be challenging,” said Lukas Hartwich, a senior analyst for Green Street Advisors, an analytics firm. “But the long-term viability of senior housing is still intact.”

At least four major new projects, located on Manhattan’s East Side and in Brooklyn Heights, are currently welcoming residents or will start to over the next several months. The projects, — which have different age requirements but generally cater to people in their 70s and 80s — come after more than a decade when very little like this has been built in the city.

The housing is also much fancier and more expensive than what came before, with private apartments, stylish amenities like wine cellars, and multiple places to eat. The developers, which include national firms new to New York, appear to be betting that older New Yorkers will be willing to reach deep into their pockets to live near their children, a trend seen in other markets.

Not unlike condos and rentals before them, the new projects seem to be turning to luxury finishes and resort-style amenities to out-hustle the competition.

Inspir Carnegie Hill, a 24-story, 215-unit tower on the Upper East Side, has 50,000 square feet of exercise and entertainment options.

Included are a 24-seat movie theater, a wine cellar and three restaurants, including a ground-floor version whose moody lighting and plant-filled courtyard niche could almost be considered hip. More greenery turns up inside a soaring atrium on the 16th floor where modern couches sit by tall windows, and beyond, a terrace.

Condo-style extras are also a selling point at the Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, a 275-unit property at 21 Clark Street that opened in early October.

Included in the facility’s 50,000 square feet of amenities are three restaurants, an art gallery and a pool, plus a skyline-gazing deck that sweeps across the roof of the building, the former Leverich Towers Hotel.

A blocklong Romanesque hulk that most recently served as a dormitory for the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, the 1928 building, known for its four castle-like roof towers, was designed by Starrett and Van Vleck, the architectural firm behind Bloomingdale’s and other department stores.

The brick facade of the 16-story building has had landmark protection since the 1960s, so it hasn’t changed much. But few original details survived inside, according to Watermark Retirement Communities, a national firm that codeveloped the property with Kayne Anderson Real Estate and Tishman Speyer. In 2017, the developers paid $203 million for the building.

Watermark has restored a ballroom that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had partitioned into offices, to allow it to become the W Room, one of the complex’s restaurants. Lining its balcony is the art gallery, whose first show will be “Brooklyn Collected: Artists Next Door.”

Watermark has spent $2 million on personal protective equipment for staff members at some of its 62 complexes, which are found in 21 states, according to David Barnes, the company’s president. His mother lives in a Watermark property, though he hasn’t been able to visit her since March. “We are really pretty confident in our ability to create safe environments” Mr. Barnes said.

Of the 55 or so units leased so far in Brooklyn, no one has yet backed out, though not all tenants plan on moving in immediately.

The pandemic also delayed construction, pushing back the opening of the $330 million redevelopment from last spring to now. David Freshwater, Watermark’s chairman, said he shopped for two decades for a site in New York and watched as condo developers snapped up most of them.

New York needs senior housing, as it lags far behind other major cities, Mr. Freshwater said. The supply of senior housing relative to the number of seniors in New York is less than five percent, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care, a nonprofit that tracks the sector. In comparison, San Francisco’s rate is about nine percent, while Chicago’s is 12, according to the National Investment Center; Atlanta clocks in at nearly 15 percent. (The center, which does not include nursing homes in its totals, defines seniors as being 75 and older, and these percentages cover the greater metropolitan areas of each city.)

The supply hasn’t really budged in New York City for years. Manhattan did not add a single new unit of senior housing between 2005 and 2017, according to the center. And the other boroughs saw just a smattering of new units over the same period.

An elevated experience is also being touted by Bristal at York Avenue, a 14-story, 132-unit property at East 86th Street that is currently under construction. Each residential floor of the tower, which is being developed by Engel Burman, a Long Island-based firm, offers a shared living room with a gas fireplace. And the penthouse level has an amenity area with a piano lounge, hair salon and gym. An April opening is planned.

Luxury is also on the mind of Sunrise at East 56th, a 17-story, 151-unit property at Lexington Avenue specializing in assisted care, from Welltower, a real estate investment trust, and Hines, a national developer. Its operator will be Sunrise Senior Living, which has properties in Brooklyn and Staten Island.