SENIOR LIVING
2022 REAL ESTATE EDITION
Senior facilities lling up quickly as baby boomer generation ages
BY KAITLYN WILKES
Lakeway, a Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce board member and Policy Committee chair, said. Because nearly all of the property in places like Lakeway are spoken for, if a facility wants to build in a residential area, it would have to change the zoning of the property to integrate the new facility, she said. Lakeway Mayor Tom Kilgore said in an email that the city will continue to evaluate proposals for new senior-liv- ing facilities that are allowable by the regulations provided by the city code. “Our task is to provide clear and equal rules, not to select the type of business a property owner may develop,” Kilgore said. According to Lakeway Commu- nications Director Jarrod Wise, the city originally was founded as a second-home and retirement com- munity, creating a history of retirees moving to the area. Wise added that with the proximity to Lake Travis and Austin, it attracts those who are seeking retirement, as well as individuals and families. When it comes to demand versus availability, Kilgore said as baby boomers get older, there will be “increased demand in the not too distant future.” Page agreed, as baby boomers get older, eventually there will be more “seniors than housing to house them.” “There’s a waitlist currently [at Belmont Village Lakeway] for independent-living apartments. We do have availability for assisted living, memory care, so they can directly move into those. With the waitlist, if somebody’s independent, [and] we don’t have anything, they could temporarily live in one of our assisted-living apartments before moving,” Page said. Additionally, Anna Wynn, director of sales and marketing at Solera Senior Living, which owns The Reserve at Lake Austin, said the luxury complex is set to open in September. It expects to be almost full when it opens. The building will have 135 apart- ments for assisted living, indepen- dent living and memory care.
Recently opened senior living facilities are lling up fast as the baby boomer generation, which accounts for 130,000 people in Travis County, turn to senior housing such as The Reserve at Lake Austin. As parts of the baby boomer gener- ation, those born between 1946 and 1964, reach the age of 65 and older, senior living facilities that are built to accommodate the older population are facing waiting lists and nearly full capacity before they have even o cially opened. This raises a potential problem as the younger end of the generation starts to use senior living facilities as they get older. In the Bee Cave and Lakeway area of western Travis County, there are between eight and 10 places that could be considered senior care living facilities due to the minimum age requirement, according to Bee Cave City Manager Clint Garza. “I’d say we’re very much open to the idea [of having more facilities] as it’s well represented in existing and upcoming development codes as a use permissible in a number of zoning categories,” Garza said in an email. Garza said the city does not currently have any new senior care facilities being built or proposed. He said this could be market-driven due to the recent opening of Longleaf Bee Cave, which according to the city, has 88 units and 95 total beds. This facility has assisted living, memory care and respite care. Longleaf Bee Cave was contacted multiple times but was not available for comment at the time of printing. In Bee Cave, the city di erentiates between independent-living and assisted-living projects within the city code. The city also utilizes special-use permits to maintain the vision for the city and puts the new facilities in places that are compatible with the surrounding buildings, Garza said. Lake Travis zoning for senior care facilities works in a similar way, said Landria Page, community relations associate for Belmont Village
The Reserve at Lake Austin is still under development and is planned to open in September. (Grace Dickens/Community Impact Newspaper)
SENIOR LIVING BY THE NUMBERS As the population in Travis County grows, so does the amount of older residents.
Total Travis County population:
1,305,154
10.2% of Travis County residents over 65 equates to about
130,000 PEOPLE
Percentage of the population older than 65:
10.4% Bee Cave
9.4% Austin
16.5% National
22.8% Lakeway
"BETWEEN BEE CAVE AND LAKEWAY, THEY'VE REALIZED THAT THEY DO HAVE THAT SENIOR POPULATION HERE IN THE AREA. “THEY HAVE ALREADY APPROVED CERTAIN PROJECTS. SO THERE’S ONLY ONE MORE COMMUNITY IN THE GREEN HILLS AREA THAT’LL BE APPROVED. AND THAT’S KIND OF AT CAPACITY." LANDRIA PAGE, COMMUNITY RELATIONS ASSOCIATE AT BELMONT VILLAGE LAKEWAY
SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Near Lakeway, there are two more facilities—Revel, which will be o Hwy. 71 and Bee Creek Road, and Attiva Active Adult, which is in the early stages of development being built to accommodate the need for senior living facilities. “The cities look at the need for it within the Lake Travis area, and they don’t want the economy or the
area to get inundated by di erent communities. Between Bee Cave and Lakeway, they’ve realized that they do have that senior population here in the area,” Page said. “They have already approved certain projects. So there’s only one more commu- nity in the Green Hills area that’ll be approved. And that’s kind of at capacity.”
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LAKE TRAVIS WESTLAKE EDITION • JULY 2022
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