High-end urban senior living may be the next big thing, but it will not be cheap.
So, I was on a train Monday heading out of New York City and I looked up and saw an ad on the wall with a big “Senior Living” in the middle. Of course, it caught my attention. So I walked up to it and saw that it was an ad for the new Inspīr at Carnegie Hill being developed by Maplewood Senior Living and Omega Healthcare Investors on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Construction started in June 2017 and it is supposed to open at the end of this quarter. With 23 floors, 212,000 square feet, 215 units and at an initial cost estimate of $285 million, it will be the most expensive assisted living community ever built at more than $1.3 million per unit.
There is modest competition in Manhattan at what would be expensive rates anywhere else in the country. But Inspir at Carnegie Hill, together with the new Sunrise Senior Living being built 40 blocks to the south, will have basic rates that are expected to start at between $20,000 and $25,000 per month. Trust me, there are people in Manhattan that can afford it. The community’s rent to its landlord is $21 million a year.
The community is going to be beautiful, of course, but I thought it a bit odd that ads were on trains going to and from New York, which usually do not have New York residents on them. I guess the assumption is that mom lives in Manhattan while the train rider is in the suburbs.
I do hope this community will really become part of the neighborhood, and let others come into the beautiful bar and maybe even open up the dining room to non-residents. After all, that should be what the new urban senior living experience is all about. Don’t just inspire the residents, but inspire the whole neighborhood. I can’t wait to go to the open house in several weeks. Stay tuned.
