CRE

Designing for Senior Communities: Revel

Six years ago, we began concepting a new type of senior community with the goal of reinventing the look and feel of senior living. We started the process by reading Healing Spaces by Dr. Esther Sternberg and diving into the psychographics of the boomer subgenerations. Our research could be summed up in a couple of key items: The generations that are arguably the most interesting in our society were being reduced to a dangerous stereotype, and senior living spaces, when designed strategically, can help prolong the “active” years of aging.

When we speak of dangerous stereotypes in design, we are referring to outdated mindsets that can hinder our thought process and block our ability to provide appropriate solutions. Sergei Scherbov, deputy director at The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, pointedly said, “What we think of as old has changed over time, and it will need to continue changing in the future as people live longer, healthier lives.” When designing for seniors, we have approached the process like we would for any other demographic, while being especially mindful of universal design and classic aesthetics.

An example of this is the brand we created with The Wolff Company called “Revel.” Revel Communities focus on independence, connection and wellness. Each property is built from the ground up, offering tailored lifestyles to fit each resident with wellthought-out units and strategic, high-end amenities. They all feature a farm-to-table restaurant, bar/lounge and a lobby lounge, as well as core health amenities such as a wellness spa, fitness center and salon. In more recent Revel communities, each property features a flex amenity that is unique to each location, such an ice cream parlor or convenience market. The approach to accessibility was to incorporate it into the design in a way that felt natural and inclusive as opposed to clinical and exclusive, to allow the spaces to feel ageless and comfortable for all residents and their guests. Materials were specifically selected to appeal to all ages as well as aid in memory retention, wayfinding, comfort and sense of place.

A concept that was also introduced as part of the Revel brand is a resident senior program, the first of its kind for senior living properties. As part of the program, residents can choose a three- or six-month stay at any of the other Revel locations in a furnished, pet-friendly, one-bedroom apartment, like an Airbnb experience. This allows the residents a safe and familiar way to travel.

When addressing senior living, there are many different types of properties with varying levels of medical needs. However, we strongly feel that these residents deserve to age gracefully and the design of the spaces they spend their time in should be as interesting and culturally rich as they are. —Christina Johnson, the creative director of Phoenix- and San Francisco-based Private Label International (privatelabelintl.com), a full-service interior design studio that develops hospitality environments and lifestyle brand experiences for clients worldwide GET REAL

by Mike Hunter

Camelot Homes Plans Three Luxury Communities in Scottsdale

Camelot Homes recently closed on the purchase of three parcels of land in Scottsdale, with plans to break ground this year on three new luxury gated enclaves with a combined total of 29 homes: Aura, on 8.5 acres at the southeast corner of 128th Street and Shea Boulevard; The Collection, on 4.7 acres at the northeast corner of 74th Street and Valley View Road; and Legacy at D.C. Ranch, on 3.1 acres that is the last remaining residential parcel in the DC Ranch Masterplan. camelothomes.com

MAK Homes’ New South Mountain Community Celebrates Area History

Designed by MAK Homes, Heard Farm is an intimate 24-home community offering modern farmhouse- styled homes focused on sustainable living and intently echoing the agricultural history of this property. The five unique home designs of Heard Farm are in direct response to the agricultural context of the South Mountain area focusing on simplicity and elegance. The Heard Farm home design takes full advantage of the views to South Mountain and its adjacent farmland, giving a significance and sense of place for the community. heardfarm.com

Landsea Homes Breaking Ground on Communities East and West

Landsea Homes recently broke ground on three new communities in Arizona: El Cidro in Goodyear, 201 homes featuring the small-town charm of single-family homes; Rev at Eastmark, offering 90 modern single-family homes in Landsea Homes’s newest neighborhood in the Eastmark master plan in Mesa; and The Villages at North Copper Canyon in Surprise, 315 one- and two-story single-family homes. landseahomes.com

George Oliver’s Arbor to Bring ‘Urban Organic’ to Downtown Tempe

Downtown Tempe is one of the nation’s most dynamic office markets and the perfect location for the Arbor’s hightouch design concept and unmatched amenity base. It is exactly what users are asking for as they reoccupy their office spaces. We pulled great inspiration from the Mill Avenue landscape for our development and will be including Instagram artwork features and a signage package that ties into the energy of the urban landscape.

Arbor broke ground in Q4 last year; upon its completion in Q3 this year, Arbor will transform the landmark Hayden Station mixed-use property in downtown Tempe into a one-of-a-kind office and retail destination. With a total 124,189 square feet in four two-story, mixed-use office-and-retail buildings and a five-story office building. Arbor’s “Urban Organic” design theme will balance a natural material palette and indooroutdoor environments. Heavy project amenities will include a lounge with collaborative seating, a test kitchen, cocktail bar and virtual darts; a wellness center featuring meditation pods; a mother›s room; secure indoor bike storage; and a well-equipped fitness room that will include towel service and spa-inspired showers. It will also include a 50-person indoor training room, small and large outdoor conference rooms/cabanas, a rooftop networking patio, yoga garden, dog patio and game areas — all enhanced with hanging daybeds, fireplaces and seating.

Arbor will deliver all the comforts people have grown to love in their home office while also giving them the perfect canvas for safe on-site team collaboration in exceptional meeting areas and workspaces. This will give tenants at Arbor a tremendous advantage in a marketplace where flex schedules and back-to-work programs are requiring a new level of attention to employee recruitment and retention. Arbor’s urban organic design concept will reimagine the best aspects of this property to create the kind of tasteful park setting found at a high-end resort. —Curt Kremer, managing partner at George Oliver (georgeoliver.com)

DON’T MISS OUT!

Get a year of In Business Magazine Subscribe now at inbusinessphx.com

Phoenix Data Center Numbers Are High

Phoenix, which has been one of the nation’s strongestperforming data center markets for the past many years, continues to shine. Thanks to our booming population, a mix of cloud, social media and technology companies are all vying for space here. This keeps demand always ahead of supply, even within the Valley’s significant inventory of Class A data center product.

This ongoing demand has ranked Phoenix second in the U.S. for data center demand, third in the U.S. for data center job growth and fourth in the U.S. for data center construction activity, according to JLL’s recently released Data Center Outlook report.

Major industry players like Align, NTT, QTS, Compass, CyrusOne, Stream, Iron Mountain and EdgeCore are filling space as quickly as it completes, and new demand continues to emerge from not only the entities noted above but also the financial services, healthcare and software sectors.

With this steady influx of large-scale, multi-site requirements, colocation developers and operators are continuing to expand their footprints with secondary locations throughout Metro Phoenix. As of the start of 2022, the Valley had a total inventory of just over 5.1 million square feet (472 megawatts) of data center space. Over the next several years, planned construction to the tune of almost 5.8 million square feet (883 megawatts) will more than double that. Look for most of this growth to be in the East Mesa data center cluster and the Glendale-Goodyear area.

For data center users, the message is clear: Be swift with deal execution, because there are likely multiple users pursuing the same inventory. For buyers, it is a game of go big or go home. Because if you build it, they will come. —Mark Bauer, a managing director with JLL in Phoenix and co-leader with its Data Center Solutions group who has two decades of experience in the data center and colocation industry us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/research/data-center-outlook

Roughly 21 million square feet of new office space and 15 million square feet of retail space have been built in Phoenix over the last decade. The Phoenix metro self-storage sector grew exponentially as well, with 11.9 million square feet added to the local inventory over the last decade. More than 1.5 million square feet of self-storage space was added in 2021 alone. storagecafe.com/blog/the-most-active-real-estate-markets-in-the-last-decade