By Angela Marshall
While the facility will be able to house 143 tenants, Catherine Fiocco, marketing director for the business, feels most will already be Rockville Centre residents. Or those moving back from Florida.
Developers held a topping off ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 20, signaling the completion of the facility's primary structure and the beginning of the interior construction. It is set to open in May.
Fiocco and Sandy Hunt, resident services coordinator, said 80 percent of the calls they have received from interested tenants have come from within the village.
They come from residents who find their houses overwhelming but don't want to leave Rockville Centre, according to Fiocco. She could not say how many rooms have already been reserved.
Those moving back from Florida are part of an increasingly trend called reverse migration, according to Cyd Beth Charrow, director of senior services for the village. Many adult children also want to keep their parents closer to home and monitor their care.
Both trends are creating a market for senior housing that the people of Maple Pointe are more than happy to fill.
The five-story complex has 90 units, ranging from studios and one bedrooms to companion suites.
The first three levels feature enriched housing, Fiocco said. These rooms are available to those over 65 years old. Levels four and five are licensed as an adult home for individuals with Alzheimer and dementia and are also limited to those over 65.
In 1998 developer Andrew Belfer projected the project would generate $404,000 in local taxes each year, $265, 000 to the RVC School District, $92,000 to the village and $47,000 to the town and county. Hunt said that updated numbers could not be offered until the project is finished.
Maple Pointe is a joint project of Hassat-Belfer Senior Housing and DeMatteis Organization. DeMatteis has also been responsible for the Nassau Coliseum and the EAB Plaza in Uniondale.
While the option of living at Maple Pointe is open to anyone over 65 who can afford the rent, Fiocco said, they are focusing mainly on the frail elderly, those who are not able to take care of themselves in an apartment setting and who might benefit from the facility's on-site medical access.
Although a nurse is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Maple Pointe is not a nursing home with doctors on staff. Life Care Services, in existence since 1961, will manage the facility. Residents will have emergency-response units, which can either be worn around the neck or as a watch, that can be activated with the push of a button. The facility is also located within a few miles of two hospitals, Mercy Medical Center and South Nassau Communities Hospital.
Residents can opt to keep their current physician or to use one of the physicians that administrators will arrange to visit the facility. Transportation will be provided to any medical appointment.
Maintaining independence
Transportation for residents will also be provided to many other activities outside of the complex. Fiocco stressed that residents of the enriched housing floors can become a part of the Rockville Centre community or maintain activities they had before moving in.
This is a community within a community but this is still Rockville Centre, Hunt said. We want them to think, I'm just moving down the block.
As part of the Maple Pointe package to residents, each will receive a membership to the Sandel Senior Center.
I'm hoping that we have an interplay back and forth, said Charrow. She visited The Mayfiar of Glen Cove, another assisted living facility by Hassett-Belfer, and said she was impressed. It's a gorgeous facility.
Trips to the grocery store, movies and other locations also will be scheduled. If a resident has a special errand to run, they can take a taxi. All administrators ask, according to Hunt, is that the resident let them know where they are going and when they plan to be back.
There is also a private dining room residents can reserve for family dinners. Fiocco said residents value being able to play host in their home. But they don't have to do the dishes.
Rooms come with an efficiency kitchen, which includes a sink and a microwave. But there is a also a main dining room where they can eat three meals a day.
There is also a garden room for socializing on each floor.
Taking the journey
Care is very different for residents living on the top two floors of the complex. In The Glen, as Fiocco called it, residents with dementia and Alzheimers will be grouped into family clusters and live in neighborhoods.
Each cluster of seven residents will have one caretaker and full kitchen. The groups are small because the diseases are unpredictable, Hunt said.
People suffering with these diseases often forget the here and now and believe they are in some other time of their lives. They think their children are babies, that they have to go to work or any number of other scenarios.
We go on that journey with them, Fiocco said.
The Glen will contain life-skills centers. A nursery complete with dolls and a changing table will be on hand for a woman feeling that she should be caring for her baby. Offices will be created for men and women thinking they have to do their work. And park benches will be arraigned for those who commute.
