Senior Housing News: Best Building Repositioning of 2023: Reimagining a Decades-Old Design to Stay Competitive
Planning for the next generation of senior living residents propelled leaders at the Bay Village life plan community to pursue redevelopment to modernize the community on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
In updating outdated design at the 12-story community, sweeping amenities changes and space redesigns were made to refresh the building first built in 1975. A major focus of the repositioning was the addition of a modernized dining venue space.
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“We wanted to keep the community’s competitive edge in the market and provide residents with additional amenities,” Bay Village CEO Eric Nichols told Senior Housing News.
Alongside the main building redevelopment, Bay Village added a nearby memory care community.
For these reasons, Bay Village was awarded first place recognition in the 2023 Architecture and Design Awards.
THE CONCEPT
Planning for the repositioning at Bay Village started in 2017. At the time, Nichols said he sought to modernize the community for an incoming generation of residents, who no doubt will want something different than their predecessors.
His inspiration came from a session at LeadingAge Florida session led by Melissa Pritchard, managing principal at SFCS, about a project at another community to build new memory care households. One year later, Nichols and Pritchard were having in-depth discussions about an SFCS and Bay Village partnership.
Shortly thereafter, Bay Village purchased several residential lots near the community’s main campus. After a preliminary site study, it was determined the site was large enough for a memory care building and the two companies got to work on a master plan.
Eventually they arrived on plans that called for updating 78,400 square-feet of space as part of the $13.9 million redevelopment project. The project included renovations to independent living residences and updated amenity spaces at the community.
“We were dealing with a building nearly 50 years-old and it was something we planned for, while also balancing having renovations going on at the same time as we have residents living at Bay Village,” Nichols said.
The dining room was central to the redesign, with the main dining area updated to multiple venues, and common rooms were renovated. A lobby was opened to the dining areas through a series of gathering spaces that flow together to emphasize connections between residents, staff and families.
Alongside the added dining venues, a new wellness center was also updated to allow for more programming space. Apartment units and common spaces were renovated in the first phase, going a single unit at a time to ensure the least amount of disruption to residents. Other key amenity spaces included a rooftop deck, spa and fitness centers.
“That was key to showing the residents that we were doing this to benefit them and to improve the community overall,” Nichols said.
The CONSTRUCTION
In recent years, senior living operators choosing the path of new growth via new construction faced many challenges in the last four years, especially coordinating planning and construction of projects undertaken between 2020 and 2022.
The construction involved for Bay Village’s transformation, handled by ME&S General Contractors, faced those same broader challenges, while also having some site-specific issues along the way.
Bay Village’s existing floor plans and tight property site led to challenges in uncoupling mechanical and service lines as renovations were being made to build on top of an existing health care space.
“The technical challenges of this project were at the highest level,” Pritchard said in an interview with SHN. “In terms of complexity while still holding the aesthetic outcome at the highest level, this is the project in my career that’s done both of those at the highest level.”
Another area of focus in construction was proper acoustics in the dining space to not have noise issues, Nichols said.
“We opened up the ceilings and found things that needed to be repaired and we took care of a lot of repairs during construction and it’s necessary to get everything done as part of the project,” Nichols said.
While construction was ongoing, design team members shared renderings and updates with marketing teams that helped keep buzz for the community’s reimagination. In total, construction of the repositioning spanned seven phases and started in February 2021 and was completed in 2023.
The COMPLETION
As described by Nichols, the community offers a Floridian style with nautical themes throughout the updated community with decor at the reimagined community an important finishing touch. After seeing the finished product, Nichols said seeing residents interact with the new spaces is worth the challenges that came in planning.
“The residents are thoroughly enjoying all the new spaces and all the new amenities and seeing people walk around here, people are in awe at how beautiful it is,” Nichols said of the completed project.
The new wellness center also now includes a full service salon and spa. Renovated spaces included the community’s library, stage room and sanctuary. An updated coffee bar was also added near the dining space.
In looking back at the project, Pritchard said Bay Village let planners “push some boundaries” in designing the community and it paid off in reimagining resident experience.
The new community layout and repositioning has helped increase prospective residents on the Bay Village waiting list, Nichols said.
“Our wait list has been impacted and on occupancy we’ve always been very strong,” Nichols added. “What made it such a success was the team’s commitment to each other and to the residents.”
Of Bay Village, SHN Architecture and Design Awards judge LuAnn Thoma-Holec said the community’s new interiors were “beautifully executed.”
“I love the bold wall-covering in the lobby which sets the theme throughout the building. Lots of blue and gray which seems a bit cold, but the warmth and sunshine of Florida will prevail,” Thoma-Holec said.