Quadrum Global to Build Resort-Style Senior Living in Demanding Market

By Andie Lowenstein, Associate Editor

Fort Myers, Fla.—An international developer and investment firm has plans to construct a resort-style senior living community.

Focused on value-added properties, Quadrum Global acquired a 32.5-acre site at 7650 Gladiolus Drive in Fort Myers, Florida, and is ready to launch construction.

Connected to the adjacent 279-acre Lakes Regional Park, the property is approved for up to 460 units and an additional 100,000 feet for commercial use. Quadrum’s primary plan, with focus on architectural and feasibility studies, includes creating 335 rental units extending across 264,070 square feet. The anticipated housing mix will feature 160 assisted living apartments, 125 independent living apartments and 50 independent living cottages. An extra 88,000 square feet will be used for 590 surface parking spaces.

Quadrum Global created a separate entity, Quadrum Senior Living Management, to manage the community’s construction and operations. Colin Marshall, a senior living veteran with more than 20 years of management experience varying from on-the-ground property-level management to portfolio-level oversight, will lead this entity.

Due to weather conditions, recreational contributions and topnotch medical infrastructure, Lee County, Florida boasts one of the nation’s fastest growing populations. From 2000 to 2010, the 55-and-older population grew nearly 40 percent, reflecting the county’s total population growth over the same period. By 2030, Lee County will rank fourth among all of Florida’s counties in senior population. With an occupancy rate of 96 percent, supply is extremely tight for highly amenitized, modern senior living availability. Demand is likely to continue to grow quicker than supply over the next 15 years.

“Southwest Florida and general and Fort Myers area in particular continues to see an explosion in population growth, and seniors are leading the way,” said Oleg Pavlov, Quadrum’s chief executive officer. “For Quadrum, this development project represents a tremendous opportunity to answer an important need for the area’s growing senior population. We expect this project to be the first of many as senior living becomes one of our core strategies in the U.S.”

“We also view this investment as an opportunity to apply Quadrum’s substantial hospitality expertise for creating a differentiated product and senior living experience that stands apart from the impersonal, institutional offerings still so common in the industry,” said Seth Schumer, Quadrum’s director of U.S. investments.

Just a five-minute drive away are the Healthpark and Gulf Coast Medical Centers – two of the state’s largest and most modern hospitals – and 12 other unaffiliated medical office complexes. The planned senior housing community will offer an abundance of amenities, including three meals per day, restaurant-style dining; once-per-week house cleaning, numerous social spaces such as a café, multiple living rooms, a movie theater, a computer center, walking paths through a wooded preserve, a resort-style pool and clubhouse, onsite hair and nail salon, shared medical offices, therapy and massage rooms, organized trips and activities, transportation to local shopping and a 24-hour nursing station available to assisted living residents.