Maplewood Senior Living president and CEO Gregory Smith

NEW YORK CITY—Maplewood Senior Living, which broke ground on its $300-million Inspīr | Manhattan senior housing high rise project earlier this month, tells Globest.com that it plans to build new projects here and in major markets on the East and West coasts.

In an exclusive interview, Maplewood president and CEO Gregory D. Smith says the impetus behind the Westport, CT-based firm's decision to launch the new senior luxury Inspīr brand and build its first project at 1802 Second Ave. on the Upper East Side is strong demand. The 23-story, 212,000-square-foot mid-rise featuring 215 units of assisted living, enhanced care and memory care will open in 2019. It will be one of the first ground-up projects of this scale in the city in more than 20 years.

The project, which Smith estimates including carrying costs will have a price tag in excess of $300 million, is being developed with partner Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. of Hunt Valley, MD. Omega, a publicly-traded REIT, has partnered with Maplewood on all of its other existing 13 senior housing facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ohio and will likely providing financing for its other projects in its pipeline, Smith says.

The project site was an assemblage of five residential properties with ground floor retail that will be razed. The development is expected to be completed in about 24 months. T.G. Nickel & Associates of New York City and Ronkonkoma, NY is serving as the construction manager for the development. Handel Architects of New York City will design the development.

The demand for this luxury senior product stems from seniors who have lived and raised families in urban centers who wish to continue to reside in the city and take advantage of the culture and other perks of urban living. Another key demographic comes from city-based children of seniors who wish to have their parents reside nearby, Smith says.

The development, when completed, will offer luxury amenities, including gardens, an indoor heated swimming pool, a luxury salon and spa, a state-of-the art entertainment movie theatre, a library, and luxurious common areas. There will be a variety of high-end dining venues, all of which will include farm-to-table dining.

“New York City offers a rich environment for seniors who wish to continue an active lifestyle with connections to family, social networks and the many culturally diverse opportunities the city has to offer including theatre, opera and museums,” says Smith. “We are designing a truly unique community that not only offers access to the city, but to incredible private spaces with beautiful finishes and well-appointed apartments, all set in an oasis of boutique-style luxury.”

The Westport, CT-based firm, in addition to the Inspīr | Manhattan now under construction, operates suburban luxury senior facilities, including six Maplewood senior facilities in Connecticut in Bethel, Danbury, Darien, East Norwalk, Newtown and Orange; four in Massachusetts in Brewster, West Yarmouth (2), and Weston, as well as three in Ohio in Chardon, Cuyahoga Falls and Twinsburg.

He says that especially during the latest development boom in New York City, “Senior housing has never been contemplated as a development opportunity in that particular market just because it was never the highest and best use—it was always residential, multifamily or hotel.”

Smith adds that as the demographic of seniors in New York City and in other key markets continues to grow sharply and is expected to grow at a quicker pace in the next five to 20 years, “We (senior housing) are now becoming competitive with the higher and best use class.”

Senior housing he believes will serve as a “disruptor” that will shake up the development offerings in New York City and elsewhere. Based on its entrance into Manhattan with its new Inspīr line, he says, “We are seeing other developers reaching out to us that have never been in the space. Major developers are getting involved in the space and wanting to know more about it because they too are seeing the opportunity.”

He adds that its new Manhattan project will serve as the firm's “launching pad” for projects in the New York metro region and elsewhere. Smith expects to develop new Inspīr developments in Midtown and on the Upper West Side. He notes that his firm will likely move forward on either one or both of those new developments within the next 18 to 24 months.

Future plans call for expansion of the Inspīr to other urban markets such as Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and then abroad to Europe and Asia.

“This for us is a global luxury brand,” he says.

In terms of its expansion of its suburban Maplewood senior living brand, he says that the firm is looking at opportunities in the Northeast, West Coast, DC and in the Southeast.

Smith reports that the firm has started to develop a new senior living complex close to its Westport headquarters in Southport, CT, a 97-unit, 100,000-square-foot facility. Site clearing has begun on the $40-million project. Maplewood has also begun site work on a senior project on the Princeton Healthcare campus in Plainsboro, NJ. The $40-million project will feature a 105,000-square-foot building and 103 assisted living and memory care units.

The firm is also completing construction on a $30-million, 75-unit memory care building in Cape Cod, MA, which is scheduled to open in August.

In relation to his firm's expansion in New York, he points to the Westchester County market as an area the firm is very interested in. He says Maplewood has identified four or five possible development sites in the Northern New York City suburb.

“We are looking at probably anywhere from five to eight locations in Westchester County,” Smith says.

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Exclusive: Maplewood Senior Living Seeks to Expand in NY and Nationwide

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