SAN DIEGO—Creating senior communities that are more residential than institutional and that offer privacy, comfort and customization will provide additional choices for this growing sector, San Diego-based Weston Harmer, VP of sales for Los Angeles-based Strategic Legacy Investment Group Inc. and founder of We Strategic LLC and W Design Development, tells GlobeSt.com. SLIG recently launched We Strategic in partnership with W Design Development, which is currently working on two senior-housing development projects in San Diego with a combined value of $107 million.

Diamond Living Estates in Vista, CA, will have 84 beds and will be celebrating its groundbreaking with a ceremony on December 3, and La Costa Living Estates in Encinitas, CA, will have 108 beds. The company is aggressively looking for additional sites.

To support the new projects, We Strategic has started recruiting team members throughout San Diego. The company has hired Elsy Ayache, who has also become a part owner of the company, to lead the operating team. Avache has more than 20 years of experience in this field. It has also retained the law firm of Allen Matkins to handle land use and other real estate legal issues. Heather Riley, partner in the Allen Matkins San Diego office, will spearhead the legal team for We Strategic. She has extensive expertise in a variety of land use and environmental matters, specifically with the California Environmental Quality Act.

Harmer entered the senior-housing market in 2014. During his conceptual plan development for W Design Development in 2015, he teamed with SLIG to form the joint-venture partnership, creating We Strategic LLC. This was the initial step for the partners to create a platform that will ultimately design, build, own and manage multiple portfolios of continuing-care retirement communities across the US. These will comprise independent-living, assisted-living, mild-cognitive-impairment and memory-care and hospice facilities.

We spoke with Harmer about the significance of We Strategic, the projects the firm is working on and how the senior-care model will need to change to accommodate the oncoming silver tsunami of aging Baby Boomers.

GlobeSt.com: What is most significant for you about the creation of We Strategic?

Harmer: I created We Strategic after doing four to five years of due diligence, and we came up with the right new way of life for seniors, which is more residential than a single-use building. The senior-housing market is old business and big business. With growing demand for senior housing, we believed that new alternative ways of living and a new style of living might be preferred.

Every facility I've seen all seems to be the same: a black asphalt parking lot, porte de cochere in front of the building, and inside the building a reception area, a dining room and chapel and a hallway with rooms on each side. It's consistent everywhere you go.

We're going to build individual residential homes for the seniors, putting just six residents in each home, and that way they feel they have their home. They've moved up in life. It's more private. Instead of just a memory box in the hallway to display their life, they will have their own bedroom, hallways, a living room to decorate. It's a way to make the home theirs.

We'll be able to pair people with like people. There will still be community amenities like fitness centers, spas, a man cave, dining hall, outdoor areas for them to gather, walking trails, a therapy pool. They'll have the same amenities as a single-use facility would have, but it will be more of a retreat.

It will also be more intergenerational. In the traditional senior-housing facilities, people didn't have a lot of visitors because there were no private places to meet with family member. In this case, there will be more private settings, so family members can sit on the couch with mom and dad, watch TV and have dinner in their home.

The key is putting them in residential neighborhoods. Senior living now is not in residential areas; you need to drive to it because of the business zoning. But, the state of California passed a new law a couple years ago stating that any home of people or less designed for seniors is to be treated as a residential facility. This helps us get into a location where we're part of the community, not outside the community. At La Costa Living Estates, we'll be able to offer ocean and lagoon views. We've designed it to use only 3 of the 22 acres; we're giving 19 acres back to the community. We will buy double-mitigated land space for preservation of plants and species.

The homes we're creating will range from 2,500 square feet in Encinitas to 3,500 square feet in Vista. Higher density is desired in Encinitas. We've researched the process to make sure it's pretty and blends into the existing neighborhood.

GlobeSt.com: What do you feel is lacking today in the area of CCRCs nationwide?

Harmer: Care needs to be more personalized. We're looking at offering boutique, high-end concierge services that focus on wellness: mental, spiritual and physical. We're improving food quality, in addition to decreasing care-level ratios—we're looking to be at 1:6 care levels, whereas most big guys in the US are 1:10 or 1:12. That's why the design has been to cluster residents all in the same area—it's easier to manage if they're all in the same area. But we see two caretakers in each home to give service.

Vista's development will be priced in the mid-range, while Encinitas' will be in the high range, but not above La Costa Glen or Carlsbad by the Sea. It will be close to Silverado in price, but it will offer a high-end product in La Costa—it will command that. There will be wildlife, the lagoon, painting outside, bird watching, gardening, farming. This is a new, different choice.

GlobeSt.com: How else will the senior-care model need to change to accommodate the oncoming silver tsunami?

Harmer: Alternative choices are going to need to be brought forth. We're building single-family homes, not the same thing over and over. This is pretty much about focusing more on the individual. It's the right way to go. Now is the time for new changes.

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Another Option for Senior-Community Design

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