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$20M Lodge at Balfour Opens
Louisville Complex Offers Independent Living for Seniors
The Daily Camera
September 19, 2004
Robert Baumgartner examines his new apartment in the Lodge at Balfour, an independent living complex in Louisville designed for healthy seniors. Baumgartner is moving from Boulder with his wife, Margaret 'Tealy' Baumgartner.
Photo by Paul Aiken
With its two-story stone fireplace, woven rugs and exposed beams, the great room at The Lodge at Balfour looks more like a luxury mountain resort than a retirement home. The room is the centerpiece of a new, $20 million independent living complex in Louisville designed for healthy, active seniors.
The building's first residents began moving in this month.
Married for nearly 59 years, Jim and Peggy Lynn have relocated to the Lodge from Alabama to be closer to their son, who lives in Longmont.
"We visited our son and the climate was so lovely and the people so wonderful," Jim Lynn said. "We think we're going to love it here."
The Lodge is across the street from the Balfour retirement community's main campus, which includes facilities for assisted living and skilled nursing. It is the final component in a continuing care program that gives seniors the option to move between levels of housing and services as their needs change.
"In retirement living, there's a huge benefit for continuum in care," said Balfour founder Michael Schonbrun. "It's a way to stay in touch with friends and family, and residents have to make just one decision to move."
Because operating costs for continuing care facilities can be high, they remain rare and account for only about 10 percent of the retirement communities nationally. According to an April 2004 housing guide published by the Boulder County aging services division, only two other continuing care communities exist in the county. At 150,000 square feet, the Lodge is by far the largest independent living structure in the county.
Forty percent of the Lodge's 95 apartments and eight cottages, which rent for between $2,000 and $5,600 per month, are already reserved. The opening, however, has been staged so that only two to four people move in per day.
"Each night people settle in and are able to learn new names," said Marilyn Israel, executive director at the Lodge. "It helps the staff as well as the residents as we get to know new people."
In addition to contemporary architecture and tasteful, Western-style decor, the Lodge offers a wide range of amenities to its residents, including housekeeping and concierge services, transportation, a swimming pool and fitness center. In place of the traditional ice cream parlor often found in retirement centers, a richly-paneled bar and lounge area adjoins the great room, and happy hour is offered several times a week.
"Many of our residents are used to socializing around wine or beer," Schonbrun said. "I've always thought it condescending to say to seniors, 'Oh, you're so cute and little; we'll treat you like an 8-year-old and give you ice cream.'"
Schonbrun, 56, has served as special heath care adviser to three governors, as deputy director of the Colorado department of health and as president of National Jewish Hospital in Denver. With more than 25 years in the long-term care field, Schonbrun brings both professional and personal experience to his retirement community.
"I went through this with my mother, who decided she wanted to be closer to family after my father passed away," Schonbrun said. "She was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker who thought she'd never leave. But after moving here, she loved it. She was becoming friends with other widows, playing bridge. Suddenly life became so much happier for her."