A suburban Chicago-based developer has gained key approvals from Briarcliff Manor village officials for a continuing-care retirement community on a vacant landmark property where a previous developer dropped plans for a similar project as too costly.
Expected to open in 2013, The Club at Briarcliff Manor will include 325 independent living and 60 supportive living residences for persons 62 and older on the 59-acre grounds of the former King”™s College, which closed in 1994, and Briarcliff Lodge in the northern Westchester County village. Estimated to cost more than $300 million, the development is a project of Briarcliff Manor Investors L.L.C., a partnership of Integrated Development Group L.L.C. (IDG), of Northbrook, Ill., and National Electrical Benefit Fund, a multi-employer, defined-benefit pension fund with more than $10 billion in assets headquartered in Washington, D.C.
“This will be the finest offering of senior living in the Northeast,” said Matthew K. Phillips, president and CEO of IDG, a company he formed in 2006 to tap emerging opportunities in the residential market serving affluent retirees of the aging Baby Boom generation. An attorney and former senior executive at Classic Residence by Hyatt, where he led a team that acquired and developed luxury retirement communities, Phillips last week said he left Classic Residence about six months before the Chicago company in August 2006 withdrew its development plans for the Briarcliff Manor property because of what a company official called “dramatically escalating” construction costs in New York. Plans for a continuing care community also were abandoned as too costly by the previous owner, Barrington Venture L.L.C., another suburban Chicago company.
The two-part development has been designed by the New York architectural firm Perkins Eastman and Sullivan Architecture P.C., White Plains, in collaboration with Interior Design Associates Inc., Nashville, Tenn. The Club”™s site plan, approved last month by the Briarcliff Manor Planning Board, includes a Lower Village with 24 townhouses and 13 villas and an Upper Village that includes 288 apartments, a supportive-living center for 60 residents, a clubhouse and aquatics, fitness and spa center. The clubhouse will include multiple dining venues, a surround-sound theater and the Lodge Room, decorated with memorabilia from the former Briarcliff Lodge on the site, one of America”™s grand resort hotels in the early 20th century.
The developer said apartments will range in size from approximately 1,000 to 2,000 square feet. Townhouses will be approximately 2,200 square feet and villas will range from approximately 2,800 to 3,200 square feet.
One-time entrance fees that start at $750,000 will be 90 percent refundable when a resident moves out. Estimated monthly fees will start at $4,300 and will include real estate taxes and utilities in addition to a wide range of services.
Phillips said his company”™s plan eliminates multi-level parking beneath the main Upper Village building included in the Classic Residence design. “That was one of the big cost differences between what we”™re doing and what Classic was doing,” he said. Architects also realized cost savings by moving the care center from the Lower Village to the Upper Village and common areas from the main building into an adjacent building, he said.
As a fee-for-service continuing care community, the development will operate on a business model only recently allowed in New York. Residents will only pay for health care services if and when they use them, resulting in lower monthly fees for the majority, the developer said.
Phillips said the partners hope to receive a certificate of authority from the state to operate the continuing care community in the first quarter of 2009. After a pre-selling period of one and one-half to two years, the two-year construction project should start in 2011.
IDG last summer opened its first sales center for The Club at 1197 Pleasantville Road in Briarcliff Manor and recently opened a southern Westchester sales location at 2120 Boston Post Road in Larchmont. While awaiting state certification, the developer is accepting deposits for The Founder”™s Club, which gives prospective residents priority in selecting units, a $10,000 credit toward upgrades and other benefits. Deposits are fully refundable.       Â
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“We had a good summer, a good early fall” for sales, Phillips said. But sales staff saw a slowdown about a month ago. Prospects have been taking “a little more wait-and-see approach with the economy and the election,” he said.
Still Phillips said he was “pleased” with the progress of sales. “We wish the world and things were better, but we”™re in the right market so there are good long-term prospects. The markets that we”™re looking at are really top-notch for real estate.”    Â
Briarcliff Manor Mayor William Vescio said the IDG project would allow older residents the opportunity to remain in the village. The development also will generate substantial property tax revenue, he said.
Among Briarcliff Manor residents, “The overall reaction to the project has been positive,” Village Manager Ingrid Richards said.
Phillips said the developer also is donating six acres for a municipal ballfield, on which work could start by mid-2009, in addition to a $2.25 million donation to the village library and a $500,000 donation for the purchase of a fire truck. Among other infrastructure improvements, IDG will replace a water tower on the site with one that will serve the nearby neighborhood, Phillips said.
On a summit overlooking the Hudson River and affording views too of the New York City skyline, the former lodge and college campus grounds were originally designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who co-designed Central Park in Manhattan. “It”™s just a beautiful site and that”™s another reason we”™re so excited about it,” Phillips said.
