Residents of The Lodge at Seven Lakes will have it all

LOVELAND – A new senior housing development planned in east Loveland will be constructed with a compassionate view of what it means to be facing one’s “golden years” with dignity in a caring environment.

The Lodge at Seven Lakes, planned for a nine-acre site just west of Boyd Lake as part of a 126-acre development by Loveland-based Glen Cos., is set for a June 11 Loveland planning commission hearing.

Scott Bray, developer and Glen Cos. owner, said he expects smooth sailing on the senior housing component and last phase of his development, which has been under way since 2000. “It’s one of the few projects I’ve been involved in where everybody’s excited about it, so that’s really nice,” he said.

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If all goes according to plan, Bray said he hopes to start construction on the $35 million – $40 million project in August with completion expected in fall 2008. “We’ll probably start marketing with an on-site office right after the first of the year,” he said.

The Lodge at Seven Lakes will contain four styles of senior living, including independent-living cottages and apartments, assisted-living apartments and a “memory care” facility for those with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Bray said the project will offer a spectrum of housing possibilities, all against a backdrop of nearby lakes, trails to hike, shopping within walking distance and inspiring mountain views. Included among other amenities will be a bistro-style café, state-of-the-art fitness center and a private movie theater. Residents who live in the independent cottages will even be able to park their RVs in an on-site garage and be able to invest in the project.

“We’re not going to be a typical for-sale condo project,” he said. “I think the option (to invest) is a real key to people who want to be independent and not just be a tenant.”

But perhaps the project’s most unusual element is its focus on the individual. Frontier Management, a Portland, Ore.-based company, is providing the management services for The Lodge at Seven Lakes. Greg Roderick, Frontier’s president, said each of the four living units will have access to on-site medical care and living assistance as needed.

For those residing in the assisted-living units, for example, Roderick said that could mean “as little as a medication reminder or as much as getting in and out of bed or assistance in bathing.”

But the place where personal assistance will be highest will be in the 32-bed memory care facility, he said. “We want to make sure their life and years there are dignified.”

Roderick said the facility will be circular in shape to provide “continuous wandering opportunities,” respecting the tendency of Alzheimer’s sufferers’ desire to move around but not get lost.

Memory care residents will be able to participate in a number of activities, including helping with the cooking of meals and doing chores, he said. “They can be as active as they like.”

But Roderick said Frontier, which has already provided memory care in five similar facilities in Oregon and Washington, is taking that personalized attention even farther.

Given the fact that Alzheimer’s sufferers often become focused on a particular period of their earlier lives, the facility will aim to cater to that identity, he said. “We’re going to try to create an opportunity for a person to live in the era they most enjoyed in life. Say they were a nurse – with the consent of the family we’d let them wear a nurse’s uniform. Or if a person was an investment broker, they’d get a copy of the Wall Street Journal every day.

“We want to do whatever it is that makes that person feel most comfortable and have the best feeling about their identity. It’s a lot of understanding each individual person.”

That includes having staff call them by their favorite name or nickname, or posting a favorite photograph of that person on their door, he said.

“We want to make sure the staff doesn’t see this person as a person with a brain disorder but as a person who did a lot of good in the community and who deserves to be treated with respect.”

With more and more people living to 75 and beyond, the incidence of Alzheimer’s has been rising in recent years and waves of retiring baby boomers in the next few decades will mean even more people needing special care, Roderick noted.

That’s why Frontier is an advocate for going the extra mile in Alzheimer’s care, he said.

“It’s a totally different mindset, and wouldn’t you want it that way?” he said.