Just because your residents are getting older doesn’t mean they are actually old.

By Steve Moran

I have this long term project to beef up my contact list of senior living companies. My goal is to have a comprehensive database of senior living organizations and their leaders. It is a slow, largely manual, and tedious process but along the way I have made some fantastic discoveries, finding new organizations and new leaders.

One of those leaders and organizations I discovered was Kelly Scheer, the President of Blossom Collection.

Kelly Scheer

Kelly started her senior living journey in acute care with the Detroit Medical Center, where for over 10 years she did a variety of things including public relations, marketing, strategic planning, and executive management. She went from there to Trinity Health where they had a large portfolio of senior living.

Blossom Collection – Detroit?

Blossom Collection is this unique portfolio of luxury living for that 55+ and active. It has a focus on the idea that getting older is not actually or at least necessarily getting old. One of the things that startled me was that they are located in Detroit, a place that is mostly known for being “down and out”. It turns out that Detroit has a fantastic demographic for the 55+ cohort.  

They expect their residents to be from the auto industry who made great money in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. They are looking for an active lifestyle where they can stay engaged.

The Flagship

Their flagship community is under construction. It is 189 units on 44 acres. Offerings will include 100 apartments of which 20 are assisted living units; then cottages and duets. They expect to begin moving in residents in early 2019. They already have about one-half of their units spoken for. Based on their reservations, the average age of entrance is around 72.   

What they are finding is that this is very much a lifestyle move as opposed to a need-based move. These are people who are preemptive, wanting to avoid being a burden on their families, wanting to stop having to worry about a bunch of space they are not really using, and hassling with things like yard care and home repairs.

Their goal is to create an “attainable luxury” living experience. Fundamentally it is about giving residents choices. They have restaurants, not a dining service. There are an art studio and an art gallery. The big idea is that residents will do what they want to do, not be forced into some kind of programming box designed by community management.

They currently have a total of 5 sites, including this one under development. You can watch the entire interview here. I would note that you will hear a reference to the Senior Housing Forum podcast and that is coming but under a different format than initially envisioned, so we are repurposing several videos as articles.