St. John’s on the Lake, a senior residential community at 1840 N. Prospect Ave. on Milwaukee’s east side plans to break ground for a 20-story independent living senior apartment tower with about 100 apartments in late spring or early summer. The new tower will be built on the site of St. John’s parking lot.
The community began registering residents last week for the new units. If the project proceeds as planned, residents will begin moving into the new high-rise tower in late 2009 or early 2010.
St. John’s on the Lake offers continued care for older adults, ranging from independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care.
It has selected Madison-based Witz Company as its developer, Perkins Eastman and Continuum Architects & Planners S.C. as its architects, Pewaukee-based VJS Construction Services as its contractor and Spectrum Marketing Inc. as its sales and marketing firm for the project.
Although St. John’s was not able to register any residents for the new tower until last week, it has been marketing the project for several months. The center has directed advertising toward residents it believes are age and income qualified to live there.
“There’s been a lot of interest,” said Rick Romano, director of marketing at St. John’s. “We’ve had close to 300 people go through our (informational meeting) process.”
St. John’s will need letters of commitment signed by at least 70 individuals or couples with a 10 percent deposit by them, before it can approach its lender for financing, said M. Kathleen Eilers, president of St. John’s Communities Inc., the nonprofit entity that runs St. John’s on the Lake.
The center has developed an area on its first floor into a sales and marketing office for the new tower, complete with a model of the proposed building.
The new 1,400-square-foot to 1,800-square-foot apartments will feature high-end amenities such as high ceilings, terraces with Lake Michigan and downtown views, large windows and customized layouts. St. John’s new facility will have four “signature” apartments on its highest floor, which will be larger than 2,000 square feet and have taller ceilings.
“We feel we’re on par with some of the things you see on the upper end (projects) like Kilbourn Tower and the University Club Tower,” Romano said. “(The apartments) will be built like a high-end residence but built with an adult 62 years old or older in mind.”
The kitchens in the new apartments will be larger than typical senior apartments, Eilers said.
“In most of these kitchens, you could cook dinner for eight,” she said. “They’re not cubby holes. Some of them will have galley type kitchens, but they’ll be more open and most will have breakfast nooks.”
The apartments were planned after St. John’s officials held meetings with potential residents over the past two years, Romano said. Even one-bedroom apartments in the new tower will have one and one-half bathrooms, and all apartments will have their own washers and dryers.
“We asked our market what they wanted to see in the homes and everybody said they wanted a balcony,” Romano said. “We built the terraces into the building, so they’ll be open air with walls on two sides. People want views.”
The new apartments will require entrance fees ranging from $270,000 to almost $500,000, with monthly fees ranging from $3,000 to $4,400 for single residents. “Signature” apartments will have entrance fees of about $600,000, Eilers said.
Much of the design of the individual apartments will be left to residences, a technique that St. John’s actively employs now, Romano said.
“We do a lot of custom work in this building now,” he said. “We move walls, put in special shelving, do fireplaces and wood floors. The same thing will happen in the new building.”
The tower will be joined to St. John’s existing campus by a town center concept on the first floor, featuring a swimming pool, an expanded and relocated fitness area, classrooms, meeting rooms and a new bistro-style casual restaurant. The tower’s entrance will face Lake Michigan, and visitors will walk into an art gallery, Romano said. St. John’s currently uses several hallways in its basement for gallery space.
Residents and visitors will park in a new two-level parking garage that will be built underneath the tower. The new parking garage will be connected to its existing parking garage which will be retrofitted and spruced up in the coming months, Romano said.
The high-end features will mask safety features common in senior apartments such as emergency call systems, Eilers said.
“It’s independent living with a safety net that’s not in your face but it’s there if you need it,” she said.
