“It took 12 years,” Long Island real estate investor Amba P. Sharma said of his project to build the first assisted living facility in the village of Scarsdale ”” and perhaps the last, given the scarcity of available properties for development there.
The Ambassador of Scarsdale, his company”™s $45 million, 115-unit development at 9 Saxon Woods Road, is expected to welcome its first residents in early January. Secluded on a 7-acre site that adjoins the Saxon Woods County Park, the luxury facility shares a driveway in White Plains with the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester.
Sharma said the project was delayed by multiple lawsuits brought against the developer and village officials by a next-door neighbor of the proposed project and was further stalled by the recession, when financing sources dried up. He eventually turned to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development”™s program for new construction for assisted living facilities for a construction loan that will become a permanent mortgage loan when construction is completed, he said.
The three-story facility includes studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and 20 memory care units for residents with Alzheimer”™s disease or dementia, said Pegi Doyle, community relations director for The Ambassador of Scarsdale. Monthly rates start at $5,250 for a shared friendship suite, which includes two bedrooms with private bathrooms and a common living room and kitchen. Two-bedroom suites start at $8,950 per month, she said.
The facility will be managed by Solution Advisors, a Princeton, N.J., company. Sharma said the residence at peak occupancy will employ 75 to 100 full-time and part-time staff.
Since advertising began this month, The Ambassador”™s sales office has had about 50 inquiries, said Siobhan Morello, the facility”™s community relations counselor. Prospective tenants hail from Scarsdale, Harrison, Hartsdale, White Plains and Tuckahoe, she said. Sharma said he hopes to draw residents from communities such as Eastchester, Yonkers and Greenwich, Conn., as well.
Sharma said The Ambassador”™s focus will be on “aging in place” and maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle to do that. “Wellness, wellness, wellness,” he said.
The Ambassador”™s competitor in Westchester”™s luxury assisted living market, the Engel Burman Group”™s Bristal at White Plains, is familiar to Sharma. Sharma in 2002 partnered with the Engel Burman Group to develop The Bristal at North Hills, a 150-unit assisted living facility on Long Island. The partners in 2006 sold the property to ING Chartwell; Engel Burman Group continued to manage the facility and later repurchased it, said Sharma.
Sharma said he also has site plans approved for a 140-unit assisted living facility on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, on the 17-acre site of the Poughkeepsie Inn, another property he owns.
That project is on hold after Engel Burman Group opted out as a development partner, he said. “It”™s too far away,” he said. “It”™s a second-tier market. The financing will be difficult.”
“Right now my focus is 100 percent on that project, The Ambassador,” Sharma said.
This looks like it will be a great place for seniors to live. As a resident in an assisted living facility a little farther south in Yonkers where my monthly rent is paid for by my Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, I need to know one thing. At $5200 to over $8000 per month, where did the people that will eventually live in this place get their money. They could not have all won the lottery or been rock stars or captains of industry. $8000 is an extraordinary amount of money even for people who are not retired. The real issue here is why is the federal government giving a loan plus other concessions to help rich people live in luxury for the rest of their lives. Will any of those residents be giving back their Social Security checks?