Retirees Go Back to School to Live Out Golden Years on Campus

A nonprofit organization affiliated with Purchase College will this month sell $14.5 million in unrated tax-exempt notes to initiate development of Broadview, a 385-apartment retirement community on its 500-acre campus, reports Financial Advisor . The project will feature a "learning commons" with classrooms, studio, and performance spaces. Broadview is the most recent publicly-funded development to capitalize on demand from retirees to live in communities near universities where they can take courses, attend art exhibits and sports events, and maintain links to their alma mater. Similar senior communities have been developed near the University of Texas, the University of Florida, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Oberlin College, and Duke University, among others. Bloomberg reports about $2.4 billion of tax exempt bonds were sold in 2017 exclusively for new senior living communities, while this year developers have sold about $730 million solely for projects. The usual community needs some $20 million of seed funding to get to the financing stage; shareholders will obtain a leasehold mortgage on the property that lets them take over the project should the owners default. New York state passed a bill in 2011 authorizing a 75-year ground lease to the Purchase development. Purchase will get $2 million a year in rent, climbing 10 percent every fifth year through the 71st year of the lease, and $8 million yearly for the final five years. The Purchase project's initial stage includes 220 independent living apartments, 18 assisted living suites, and 12 bedrooms for persons with Alzheimer's or dementia.