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how two women built a retirement community
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A Pair's Persistence Pays Off
March 18, 2003
By ELIZABETH POPE
EXETER, N.H. -- Most days, Maryanna Hatch catalogs her late
husband's artwork while her friend Rosemary Coffin writes a
memoir of childhood in England.
As residents of RiverWoods at Exeter, a $45 million
nonprofit life-care retirement community here, these women
enjoy comfortable apartments, a health club, swimming pool,
library and an art studio. Meals are provided and so is
lifetime health care.
What most of their neighbors do not realize is that
RiverWoods would not exist without Mrs. Hatch and Mrs.
Coffin. They are among a small group of farsighted
individuals who founded the community.
"This is home to us, not a decorator's paradise," said Mrs.
Hatch, escorting a visitor around the landscaped grounds.
"At our time of life, you don't want to waste time
repairing the roof or mowing the lawn. Those things sap
your energy for learning, growing and enjoying your later
years."
RiverWoods, like many nonprofit continuing care
communities, differs from ordinary retirement complexes by
guaranteeing residents housing and health care for life.
Because of the high costs and regulatory obstacles, most of
the country's 2,100 nonprofit facilities are sponsored by
universities, religious or fraternal groups or health-care
organizations, according to the American Association of
Homes and Services for the Aging. Ordinary citizens -
especially those with little money - almost never build
such communities themselves. But that is what these two
women did.
Mrs. Hatch, a former social worker, knew the problems older
people faced in her community in Durham, N.H. In the
pre-Medicare/Medicaid era, she volunteered at the county
nursing home and was appalled. At the time, the home
warehoused residents in their rooms with space for
activities in an old coal-storage room. "It wasn't
cruelty," she said, "it was just ignorance."
During the 1970's, as a town selectwoman and a planning
board member, Mrs. Hatch helped build low-income senior
housing and started a home-health agency for the elderly.
By the early 80's, Mrs. Hatch organized members of a church
discussion group to look into building a retirement
community. In 1982, a friend introduced her to Rosemary
Coffin, a longtime community activist in Exeter, who had
already formed a group to study the same possibility. Mrs.
Coffin was impressed by her mother-in-law's community in
San Francisco; residents had full social schedules and
excellent health care.
Both women were concerned that clergy members, academics
and other people of modest means faced difficult
retirements. They had seen older teachers forced to take in
students or move in with their children. "We knew a
retirement community would be a godsend for people in
Durham and Exeter," Mrs. Hatch said.
They gathered at Mrs. Coffin's antique dining-room table
and began recruiting allies with backgrounds in business,
medicine and law. The eight volunteers incorporated as Life
Care Services of New Hampshire, with Mrs. Coffin as
president. "We sat around that dining-room table for years
before we got anything going," Mrs. Hatch said. "We had no
money and no idea how we were going to do this." Their
research showed that they would need about 200 apartments
at a cost of $40 million.
The women tried to persuade local institutions - the
University of New Hampshire, Phillips Exeter Academy and
the hospital - to support their project. None could.
"People thought it was perfectly crazy," Mrs. Coffin said.
"Since none of us had any money, everyone wondered how we
were going to do it. At one point, I put $1,000 I'd
inherited from my mother in the account just to show we
were serious."
After two years as president, Mrs. Coffin suffered severe
arthritis and handed the job to Ransom Lynch, a former
chairman of the mathematics department at Exeter.
By the late 80's, the group knew it needed professional
advice. Mrs. Coffin called Robert Dana Chellis of Chellis
Silva Associates, a senior-housing consultant in Wellesley
Hills, Mass. Mr. Chellis delivered an inch-thick master
plan. "It was very collaborative," said Mr. Chellis, who
did some of the work pro bono. "We would meet at the Coffin
or the Lynch house and brainstorm about what they wanted.
Then they passed the hat, tossed in a few bucks and paid
me."
The board tried to interest developers, but it was a hard
sell because the group insisted that 90 percent of the
entrance fee be refunded to the residents or to their
estates. Finally, Retirement Living Services in Hartford
agreed to develop the community. It was the company's first
project.
"RiverWoods was on-the-job training for us," said Avery
Rockefeller III, a co-founder of Retirement Living
Services. "Plus, we were intrigued by this group of people
who studied for years on their own, and had raised $5,000,
$25 at a time."
To raise $3 million in seed money, the company contributed
money and deferred its fees for two and a half years, as
did the architects and others. Venture capitalists provided
the rest of the cash.
The company took the risk because of Exeter's name, its
underused location and the state's lack of income tax - all
draws for other New Englanders. The RiverWoods board
members were also natural recruiters with Ivy League
educations or connections to the university and the
boarding school. The developers recouped their investment
when the state issued tax-exempt bonds, raising $40 million
for construction.
FROM the beginning, the founders insisted that the
community be for people with moderate incomes. "We were all
worried that we wouldn't have enough money to move in,"
Mrs. Coffin said.
The fees are designed for a retired schoolteacher with a
good pension and a house to sell. The entrance fee is
$133,000 to $400,000, depending on the apartment size.
Monthly fees are $1,400 to $3,500. For a second person, the
entrance charge is $18,750, with a monthly fee of $891. In
return, residents are guaranteed care, from independent
living to assisted living to skilled nursing, with minimal
additional fees if extra care is needed.
Even though the developers handled the knotty financial,
marketing and regulatory details, Mrs. Coffin and Mrs.
Hatch continued to be involved. More board members were
recruited, and the group found 83 acres of farmland a few
miles west of Exeter on which to build. Retirement Living
Services bought the land in 1990.
In December 1992, after 10 years of work on the project,
Mrs. Hatch, Mrs. Coffin and Mr. Lynch put on hard hats,
picked up shovels and broke ground for RiverWoods.
Residents donated antiques, Chinese porcelain, even
cuttings from their perennial gardens. "At one point, I
just shuddered when I opened yet another letter that read,
I would like to donate my piano for the music room," she
said. "We had 16 of them."
By 1994, the development was built, featuring 201
independent-living, 20 assisted-living apartments and 39
skilled-nursing beds. With a lengthy waiting list,
RiverWoods is planning new accommodations.
The development has fulfilled its mission in other ways as
well. In 1998, Mrs. Hatch's husband, John, a noted New
Hampshire artist, became sick and died. "It was so
gratifying to be with him any time day or night, summer and
winter," she said. "There's a certain vitality to living in
a close-knit community during good times, as well as
comfort through the hard times."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/business/retirement/18POPE.html?ex=1049647117&ei=1&en=51e82f6e47657518
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