The Mission Creek Senior Community is located in the Mission Bay North area of San Francisco and the 303-acre area that was used for industrial  businesses.  Remediating the brownfield and returning it to productive use is just one of many environmental achievements of Mission Creek.  Mercy Housing employed a LEED-certified contractor and architect who used green building techniques and material featuring the use of solar panels, providing about 25 percent of the power for common areas. The project also has low-flow fixtures and piping for reclaimed water use for landscaping and toilets. Other green measures include landscaping designed for low water use; energy-efficient lighting; large windows to increase daylighting; and long-lasting, low-maintenance interior finishes that use rapidly renewable resources and recycled-product content.

The project includes 139 affordable apartments for low-income elderly residents. Support service programs enable 51 of the building units to serve frail, elderly people. The majority of residents pay a maximum of 30 percent of their income for rent, including utilities—relieving a burden from those particularly affected by housing and energy costs.

For more information the Mission Creek Senior Community, click here.

For the full EPA press release, click here.

For its earnings press release, click here and for the full transcript from the Emeritus conference call, click here.

The highest daily rates for nursing homes are in Alaska, $577 for a private room and $566 for a semi-private room. In 2008, the non-metropolitan and non-suburban areas of Louisiana had the lowest daily rates for a private room in a nursing home, averaging $127 per day. The non-metropolitan and non-suburban areas of Minnesota and Oklahoma had the lowest semi-private room nursing home, averaging $121 per day. For assisted living communities, Southern Maine had the highest average monthly base rate at $4,708 and North Dakota had the lowest average monthly base rate at $1,980.

For more information, visit the MetLife Mature Institute.

The Company currently operates 65 senior living communities in 23 states with an aggregate capacity of approximately 9,600 residents, including 38 senior living communities which the Company owns or in which the Company has an ownership interest, 25 leased communities and 2 communities it manages for third parties.

For the full earnings, press release click here.

http://www.serenaseniorcare.com/?l=news&id=16

The SNH’s conference call discussed that their independent living and nursing facilities were showing decreases in occupancy rates while the assisted living facilities showed an increase in occupancy.  Management discussed its acquisition pipeline for the 4th quarter and noted that opportunities are slowing as many operators have tried to get their sales pipelines closed before the end of the year.

Dave Hegarty, the President of SNH, shared his thoughts about the current economic environment and its affects on their company.  “What it’s really doing is it’s affecting the confidence level of seniors who are typically private pay and whether they’re willing to make the decision to move into these retirement communities knowing that either they haven’t sold their house or that they’re looking at their investment portfolio and seeing it decreasing in value and wondering if it’s going to keep going that way. So it’s shaken their confidence and that has pretty much, the brunt of that has been felt on the independent living side of things. Like I say assisted living seems to be holding up very well and the skilled nursing, I think to some degree, is probably a flawed business model anybody with private pay resources is not going to skilled nursing if they can avoid it.”

http://www.naela.org/ViewFullArticle.aspx?ArticleID=294

“The importance of projects such as this for our communities cannot be underestimated,” said Dennis M. Mullen, Upstate President, Empire State Development.  “As Gowanda faces an urgent need to retain and create jobs for younger residents, while meeting the needs of its growing senior population, this project allows the community to address the differing needs of both segments of its population.  ESD recognizes that the success of our communities’ futures rest in being able to adjust and reinvent themselves.  This includes determining appropriate, effective and efficient ways to re-use existing infrastructure.”

This renovation project is designed to encourage commercial, residential, retail and industrial development, as well as promote affordable housing choices and opportunities in Gowanda.  ESD awarded this project a Restore New York Community Initiative Round II grant of up to $1.5 million to offset construction costs. This new facility is expected to be complete by December 2009.

Constructed in 1929, Academy Place was considered surplus property by the owner (the Gowanda Central School District) and has been seen as an eyesore and a financial burden in the community.  The Village of Gowanda, in partnership with Healthy Community Alliance, Inc. (HCA), the not-for-profit sponsor and developer of the project, identified the adaptive re-use of Academy Place into a mixed-use structure to meet various residential and commercial needs, which were not currently being addressed in the community. 

The first floor of the newly renovated facility is expected to house a child and adult day care center for up to 76 children and 12 adults, office space for Developmental Disabilities Services and HCA, a congregate meal site for senior citizens and community space for general public use.  The second and third stories will be developed into 32 residential units to be used as affordable housing for the growing local senior citizen population.  Community Place LLC will own the commercial portion of the building and Academy Place Apartments, L.P. will own the residential portion.

http://www.empire.state.ny.us/press/press_display.asp?id=977