Proposed St. George Village Drawing Great Interest
By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer
Published: September 11, 2003
ROSWELL—Marketers for St. George Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community, say that North Georgia Catholics’ overwhelming response to the project has surpassed even their expectations.
According to Stacy Gass, marketing director for St. George Village, nearly 450 people joined the priority program after learning about the project during the past year.
“We’ve just been overwhelmed. On an average week, we were adding about 24 to 38 priority members,” she said. “People are just really excited.”
After attending informational seminars, which began in March, those interested in joining the priority program paid a $100 deposit. Beginning Sept. 2, the marketing office began calling the priority members, in numerical order, offering them their choice of residential units. Archbishop John F. Donoghue, who sits on St. George’s board of directors and who recently turned 75, is listed as the number one priority member. Ten units are reserved for priests who have retired.
“We expected it would go over well,” Gass said. “But we truly received a bigger response than even we expected.”
The upscale facility, which is planned to provide 150 independent living units, 24 assisted living units, 15 skilled nursing care units and 15 Alzheimer’s units, will be built on a 102-acre Roswell campus of Catholic facilities that includes St. Peter Chanel Church, Blessed Trinity High School and Queen of Angels Elementary School. The location is Woodstock Road at Highway 92.
Priority members will have first choice of one-, two- or three-bedroom units, ranging in size from 676 square feet to more than 1,614 square feet. Eight basic floor plans with 11 variations are offered. Priority members will also receive significantly reduced fees, Gass said.
“We’re just so excited to share all the details,” Gass said. “People have just been so patient with us. I can’t wait to spread out the floor plans for them.”
A single-story, 20,500-square-foot community center will be centrally located on the site, according to the architects, Rink, Reynolds, Diamond, Fisher, Wilson of Jacksonville, Fla. The center will house the main gathering space for the independent living residents. The main areas, which will be provided to serve only the residents of this community, consist of a living room, convenience store, card room, arts and crafts room, auditorium, beauty salon/barber shop and a mailroom. In addition, the community center is planned by architects to contain the main administrative offices, a commercial kitchen, auditorium and laundry room, plus employee, maintenance, storage and other support areas. There will also be a fine dining room and lounge/café.
A single-story, 10,000-square-foot wellness center will be provided for the exclusive use of this community, according to the architects. The center will contain an indoor pool, fitness room, aerobics/dance room, changing/shower rooms and spa.
The planned full-service program will include daily meal credit for either the dining room or café, weekly housekeeping and linen service, utilities, apartment maintenance, priority access to assisted living and skilled nursing at a discounted rate, security and 24-hour call system, scheduled transportation, use of all common areas and wellness and activities programming.
St. George Village will be managed by Wesley Woods of Atlanta. Wesley Woods is the leader in geriatrics in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
Residents will pay a one-time entrance fee to secure a unit. They will then pay monthly maintenance fees, based on the size of their units. Should a resident move out at any time, 90 percent of the entrance fee will be refunded when the unit is re-occupied. Priority members receive a 95 percent refund. Entrance fees start at $175,000 and residents must pay 10 percent of that fee to reserve a unit. The archdiocese will use a portion of the funds that were designated in the capital campaign for priests retirement to purchase 10 units.
The strongest amenity, Gass said, is the concept of life care. “We offer stabilized fees that are not going to change based on a person’s care needs,” Gass said. “If a couple moves into a unit and one of them declines in health, the spouse doesn’t have to sacrifice his or her independence. The couple will pay one maintenance fee, even if the spouse is in a different area of care.”
Construction cannot begin until 70 percent of the units have been reserved, but Gass is confident.
“There is a tremendous need and such a demand in this area for this,” she said. “People want to stay close to their families and to where they lived most of their lives.”
George Barrie, president and CEO of Catholic Construction Services, Inc., said he is “very encouraged” by the strong response and that construction should be on schedule.
“We are in the process of finalizing the construction documents,” he said. “By Nov. 15 we should have all the plans. Then we’ll spend the next month and a half determining the guaranteed maximum (construction) cost. We hope to have the cost finally defined by the first week of January.”
The project is estimated to cost over $50 million.
Barrie said that the aim is to begin construction in March 2004, with project completion in late summer or early fall of 2005. |
