The kids are gone, keeping the lawn cut and green has become an annoying chore and getting on the roof is starting to get a little hairy. In a nutshell, it’s time to sell that suburban house you’ve owned for decades and downsize. But where to move? The answer for many middle-aged or older residents, […]
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The kids are gone, keeping the lawn cut and green has become an annoying chore and getting on the roof is starting to get a little hairy.
In a nutshell, it’s time to sell that suburban house you’ve owned for decades and downsize. But where to move?
The answer for many middle-aged or older residents, according to New Haven area real estate professionals, is a city. They want to trade the endless headaches of homeownership for a carefree, upscale rental in an urban area that offers culture, arts, restaurants, top-flight medical and educational facilities and shopping, all of it just outside their doors.
It’s a growing demand that apartment developers in New Haven — a city that, thanks in no small part to Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital, ticks all the boxes — are eager to meet. As new complexes rise in the city’s core, developers are courting and catering to empty nesters, viewing them as a significant part of their tenant mix.
“I think [suburban empty nesters] are important for many urban projects, but more so for places like New Haven,” said Clayton Fowler, principal of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, developer of the Audubon New Haven apartments between State and Orange streets. “There is still a desire to live in the city or smaller cities like New Haven because of the convenience they offer, the ability to congregate, to be around friends, to walk outside, to be part of humanity as opposed to their suburban enclaves.”
More room
From the get-go, Fowler’s firm envisioned the third phase of its Audubon project — which is in the process of getting final approvals from the city and expected to begin construction by the middle of 2022 — as catering to the empty nester market.
That’s why it will include four new townhouses and 56 larger apartments with three or more bedrooms: they appeal to former suburbanites who may want more room after living for years in single-family homes, he said.
Jacob Feldman, a partner in MOD Equities, is also seeking to tap into the empty nester market. His firm is redeveloping the former Church of the Holy Redeemer at 575 Whitney Ave., into 24 apartments aimed in part at older residents seeking to downsize.
Partially in pursuit of those tenants, half the development’s units will have three or four bedrooms, including duplexes, as well as more bathrooms. Feldman said that people transitioning from suburban to city life typically want more space than the average urban dweller, and his firm has designed 575 Whitney Ave., to provide it.
“The way it’s done, it’s very livable in terms of size,” Feldman said. “We’re trying to give them a living experience where they could easily host a guest and not feel they’re on top of each other.”
The development’s location in the city’s East Rock neighborhood, which has mostly single-family homes, provides another likely source of empty nester tenants, Feldman said. The building will allow older residents to sell their homes and remain in the vibrant, interesting neighborhood they love, he said. Meeting with neighbors, Feldman said he got a lot of positive feedback from older residents who viewed the development as an empty nester option.
The Olive & Wooster Apartments, which recently began leasing, is another development that sees older transplanted suburbanites seeking an urban lifestyle as potential renters, according to Darren Seid, a president of Epimoni Corp., which developed the project with Adam America Real Estate. Like Feldman and Fowler, Seid said his firm is trying to appeal to that part of the market.
“They make up a nice chunk of the pie graph when the marketing company comes and asks ‘who is the building for,’ ” Seid said. “Empty nesters are near the top of the list.”
Empty nester amenities
The desire of middle-aged and retired people to ditch their expensive, high-maintenance homes for a place in the city is not just confined to the New Haven area or Connecticut, said Seid, whose company is based in Manhattan. It’s a common phenomenon in the New York area and nationwide, he said.
All three developers agreed that, in addition to larger apartments, complexes looking to attract empty nesters must include certain things into their developments.
Migrants from suburbia typically want more closet and storage space, larger kitchens and a good flow and use of space, Feldman said, all of which his firm is incorporating into 575 Whitney Ave.
Amenities are also important, Fowler said.
Communal gathering places, common kitchens and fitness facilities are all popular with older residents and will be part of the Audubon’s third phase, he said.
