AS FEATURED IN ONTARIO HOMEBUILDERS MAGAZINE – SPRING 2017 ISSUE
By Rick Drennan
Some builders are recognizing the opportunity to reinvent the burgeoning retirement living market.
You could put eukaryotic cells in a Petri dish and let it stir for a few billion years and still not create a better spokesperson for the aged, or the building industry in Ontario, than Hazel McCallion. For 36 years, she oversaw the incredible building spurt that propelled the once sleepy suburb of Mississauga into Canada’s sixth largest city.
Along the way, she epitomized the self-propelled human dynamo, the ageless superhero who, as mayor, wore out staffers half her age. Now, at age 96, she has barely slowed a step, serving as “chief elder officer” of Revera Inc., owner/operator of over 500 retirement residences in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., and chancellor of Sheridan College, one of Ontario’s top post-secondary institutions.
McCallion’s philosophy is simple: “You can be old at 50 or young at 95.” Most of Ontario’s seniors agree, especially the recent wave of baby boomers. They don’t want to go gently into that good night, and that means embracing a new lifestyle. They’ve even created a whole new lexicon that rejects the R and C words (“retirement” and “care”) in favour of A and L (“active and “lifestyle”).
Tony DiFruscio, president of St. Elizabeth Village (Zest Communities Inc.) in Hamilton, is putting this new active orthodoxy into practice. The 30-year-old, 114-acre site is pouring $800 million into re-imagining retirement living from all angles, both physically and psychologically.
“The old stereotype of a retirement village where people are put out to pasture is long gone,” he says. “Our demographic is healthy, active and vibrant. They are busy pursuing their passions in life. They have a newfound freedom and they are taking advantage of it. They want to be active and have fun.”
That fun translates into “carefree resort-style living,” adds DiFruscio. “We like to think that our residents are on permanent vacation.”
St. Elizabeth manages its renovation projects in-house and subcontracts the various stages, including a mid-rise building that will launch for marketing this spring.
There’s a unique duality about the project that weaves the buzz of a theme park—like Universal Studios or Canada’s Wonderland—with the small-town feel of a village. There are 558 garden homes and plans to build an additional 1,200 mid-rise apartment condo-style units, plus a market square right on the campus. With more than 800 residents, these amenities, coupled with extensive programming (on- and off-site), makes its retirement units more boomer-friendly.
Toronto-based Forrec was hired to transform the site into a themed lifestyle complex. The chance to bring an amusement park designer to revamp a gated community came to DiFruscio after he took over the property in 2014.
A retirement village with the “fun” aspects of a theme park? “Yes, absolutely,” says DiFruscio. “We are adding to our community to accommodate the explosive growth that the boomers will drive as they enter this next phase of their lives.”
Links Updated Feb. 2019