Apparently clinging to their independence, some men refuse to get out of the car when their wives drop in to check out a retirement living community, but not Carl Skurdal.
The Williston, N.D., native has lived in Billings for a dozen years and he has spent five years trying to talk his wife, Arvella, into selling their Billings home and moving into a retirement home.
After checking out all the West End retirement facilities, the Skurdals landed at Bonaventure, the city's newest retirement community, at 4001 Bell Ave. The 14-acre campus just south of Central Avenue off Shiloh Road opened on July 25, and Bonaventure officials are expecting more than 500 people at its grand opening this weekend.
The Skurdals waited through a year of construction to decide.
"We wouldn't rent until we saw what we had. We found what we wanted, so we bought in," he said.
The Skurdals, who met in 1975 at a Sons of Norway meeting in Sidney, put their West End patio home up for sale this summer, negotiated a sale in three days and became charter members of Bonaventure on Aug. 13.
"It just looked nice and there's no cooking. I'm tired of it after 60 years," Arvella said.
Carl said he likes their two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, one of the facility's largest, with a view of the Beartooth and Pryor Mountains. Other pluses are the chef's food and escaping the stress of caring for a home and paying bills.
"There are a lot of activities. We still have independence. We have our car and we can come and go," the 84-year-old Carl said, adding, "I'm quite ornery. If I didn't like it, I'd tell you."
Counting on aging
The Bonaventure complex and other facilities are helping to meet a growing need in the United States for senior housing.
Aging Services bureau chief Charlie Rehbein at the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services in Helena said the state currently ranks 14th in the percentage of residents over age 65. In another 25 years, as the baby boomers hit the market, Montana will be in the top five of states with an older population, resembling Florida today.
More startling, by 2030, Rehbein said, some rural Montana towns will be 60 percent seniors age 65 and older.
"The population is only going to age, and when people get to the point where they can't stay in their own homes, they are going to want to move into these facilities, if they can afford it," Rehbein said.
He also anticipates more home remodeling with seniors adding handicap access and other aides so they can keep living at home.
Bonaventure has rented 25 percent of its apartments in one month.
"We're pretty happy," said Billings marketing director Sue Robison.
In addition to safety and peace of mind, having memory care is an advantage, she said.
"Even if they don't need it today, they can see a spouse may need it, and they want to be staying together as long as possible," Robinson said.
Six months ago when Bonaventure was pre-leasing space, residential home sales were soft, but times have improved, said Carl Sanders, Bonaventure's director of acquisitions in Salem, Ore.
"Seniors not wanting to sell their home or not able to sell their home has changed. We've seen more activity in the last six months," he said.
The Billings property is owned by MWSH Billings LLC, Sanders said, adding that the actual partners behind the business prefer to remain unnamed. Monthly rents also are considered proprietary information, but they are competitive for all the amenities Bonaventure offers, he said.
This family of Bonaventure companies is profitable, he said, almost exclusively through private-pay residents.
Basing Bonaventure's business model on Medicaid is difficult, Sanders said, because of the uncertainty.
"Various states in the West have been reducing their Medicaid reimbursements by significant percentages," he said.
With a price tag of $34 million, Bonaventure is one of Billings' most expensive building projects in a decade. By comparison, the addition to Faith Chapel totaled $17 million.
St. John's Lutheran Ministries at Rimrock Road and Shiloh Road houses nearly 540 residents on 22 acres and is one of the largest senior care providers in Yellowstone County. Chief Executive and President Kent Burgess said his occupancy rate has stayed steady and he welcomes Bonaventure.
"We've got an aging population and the market will grow into them," he said.
Another model for senior living is the private-home settings like the two Butterfly Homes in Billings Heights, which each accept up to a dozen residents. After opening in 2003, owner and manager Berni Brown said she has stayed full because residents like the smaller settings.
But Sanders is confident in Bonaventure's future.
"Assisted-living occupancy still is 90 percent plus for the U.S., and if you've got that average, the industry is going to do just fine," he said.
Small-city, small-town feel
Executive director Traci Von Schriltz grew up in Plentywood and said the feel of Bonaventure is familiar.
"It's a big building, but it has a small-town feel. Lots of residents come from small towns, and the staff comes from small towns," she said.
Remembering the husband who refused to get out of the car to tour Bonaventure, Von Schriltz said people are invited to stay a weekend to try out the atmosphere and activities.
The Billings property is one of 38 senior living facilities owned and operated by Bonaventure Senior Housing LLC based in Salem, Ore.
Another early resident is Ladd Shorey. The former National Park Service employee in Yellowstone Park, who was born in 1913, will turn 96 on Christmas Day, the same birthday as Arvella Skurdal.
With the help of a cane, Shorey lives in the independent wing at Bonaventure and enjoys mealtime.
"It's very good. I enjoy it. There's excellent service," he said.
Contact Jan Falstad at jfalstad@billingsgazette.com or 657-1306. To see more of The Billings Gazette or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.billingsgazette.net/. Copyright (c) 2009, Billings Gazette, Mont. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Billings Gazette, Mont.