Coming Soon: High-Rises for Codgers

The Related Companies, the nice people who are co-developing that city within the city known as Hudson Yards – the largest private real estate development in all the land – have announced that they’re going to add something gray to their portfolio: high-rises for old people. 

New York-based Related plans to build $3 billion of luxury senior high-rises over the next five years, beginning in New York and San Francisco, Crain’s reports. A joint venture with management company Atria Senior Living will begin construction next year, according to Bryan Cho, the executive vice president at Related overseeing the initiative.

 The venture is a bet on demographics. As the Baby Boom generation ages, the U.S. population of 80-somethings will swell, reaching its highest point in history within a decade, according to John Moore, chief executive officer of Atria. Those seniors are living longer and accustomed to residing in urban areas, where there aren’t a lot of options for people needing assisted living or memory care, he said. The senior projects, with about 150 to 250 units each, will have amenities that include spas, a beauty salon and fine-dining restaurants. The buildings would devote a portion of units – as much as 25 percent – to serving patients with cognitive problems such as Alzheimer’s. 

The venture marks another move by major investors into the new niche of luxury senior living. A 16-story tower for senior citizens at the corner of 56th Street and Lexington Avenue will have uniformed doormen, marble bathrooms, and care staff that can also book tickets to Broadway shows. And a 23-story project on the Upper East Side promises residents farm-to-table dining, a spa and a movie theater. 

There will be plenty of residents to fill the new towers, according to Moore, who notes that the Baby Boom officially began the year after World War II ended. “If you take 1946 and add 75, you get 2021,” Moore said. “We’re going to be delivering buildings into the early 2020s – we’re set up pretty well to drop in on the age wave.”