[ SENIOR-LIVING HOME ]
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More senior facilities
open as population ages
The retirement communities will continue
to be a growing market, according to experts
When Sam Sasai, 80, wants to visit his wife of 58 years, he simply has to catch the elevator near his 10th-floor apartment, go down eight floors and walk into a special facility that his apartment complex set up for those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's and needing full-time care.
Michie Sasai, 78, has been in the facility for about two years.
When Sasai had major surgery recently, he spent part of his post-hospital recovery living on the third floor of his apartment complex, where beds are set aside for residents needing nursing services.
The Sasais are among 300-plus residents -- average age 80 -- living in Arcadia Retirement Residence, the oldest continuing-care retirement community in Hawaii. It opened in Honolulu in 1967.
"That's one of the reasons we're here," said Sam Sasai, a lifelong Oahu resident who moved into Arcadia with his wife seven years ago. "All these services are in one place."
As Hawaii's population has aged, other retirement communities have opened around the state, trying to tap into what experts say will continue to be a growing market with diverse needs.
One project is under construction and expected to open its doors early next year in Kahala. Another is in the planning stages for Kapolei.
Kahala Nui, a senior community covering 6 1/2 acres and with more than 300 apartments, will offer a full spectrum of care, from independent living to 24-hour care when it opens in February. Like Arcadia, it will be a continuing care retirement community.
But Kahala Nui, a roughly $200 million project, will have a decidedly upscale bent.
Residents will pay a one-time, 90 percent refundable entrance fee of $360,000 to $700,000-plus and monthly rent of $1,895 to $3,795, depending on apartment size. (A second person adds $895 to the monthly rent.)
Residents will have access to a full range of amenities.
In addition to the health center, they will be able to use a fitness center, theater, arts studio, Jacuzzi, hair saloon, piano lounge and business center, among other features, without leaving the complex.
Terry Peacock, Kahala Nui's marketing director, said the project will offer resort-style living for its residents. She acknowledged that not all seniors can afford a community like Kahala Nui, but the project will meet the needs of a certain segment of the population.
"We need all different types of retirement communities to handle the aging population in Hawaii," she said.
Some seniors prefer to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, even if they need assistance with daily chores.
Some cannot afford to live in retirement communities but do not want to burden their adult children with caring for them on a daily basis.
To help that segment of the population, Arcadia recently started offering services to people in their own homes, according to Emmet White, Arcadia president. It also offers an adult day-care service at Central Union Church.
"You and I both know it's not like the old days," White said. "Everybody's working. There's smaller families. You can't always take care of mom and dad."
As the eldest son in his family, Sasai, the Arcadia resident, said he and his wife cared for his father and mother until they died.
That experience persuaded Sasai and his wife not to burden their adult son on Oahu with the same task, he said.
"Caring for a parent is a question of duty in one sense, love in another," Sasai said. "But the stress on you physically and emotionally is tremendous. I don't want to wish that on anyone."
