Luxury living for active seniors 62 and older has come to Pasadena’s walkable Playhouse Village with the opening of a new 55-unit apartment complex.
Dubbed Brantwood, the six-story Italian palazzo-style building at 88 N. Oakland Avenue, developed by Mill Creek Properties, offers all-inclusive lease plans. One-bedrooms start at $5,000 monthly and two-bedrooms at $8,000 monthly, with living spaces averaging 784 and 1,276 square feet, respectively.
The rent includes maintenance-free living with boutique hotel-style services, amenities and daily events calendars to promote socialization.
“The demographic is people who are curious, still,” said Lisa Ashworth of The Agency, a certified seniors real estate specialist co-listing the property with colleague Lindsey Darling. “They want personal growth and development. They want to be enriched by a lot of the things we have to offer, from the cultural arts to the performing arts in Pasadena and even greater L.A.”
Brantwood is part of a growing trend at the beginning of the senior housing continuum. The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care’s October 2022 data show more than 500 active adult rental properties and 73,000 units across 43 states.
According to the NIC, many investors and developers see the active adult segment as a way to meet the needs of boomers now rather than wait for them to age into independent or assisted living.
It is a plus that Brantwood is in a dynamic and diverse neighborhood centered around culture and art, offering residents the freedom to come and go as they please on foot.
“When we worked with a consultant early on, he said, ‘This is perfect’ for what we’re talking about,” said developer Ken McCormick, who manages Mill Creek Properties with his wife, Tracy. “It’s an urban destination for seniors.”
Within walking distance of Brantwood are trendy restaurants, cafes, arts and entertainment venues, and independently owned specialty shops.
Medical facilities, a pharmacy, houses of worship, colleges and parks are also nearby.
Mill Creek Properties’ other developments are for renters of all ages. They include the Granada Court, which has 31 units with one, two, and three bedrooms, and The Andalucia, which has 118 units with studios and one- and two-bedroom layouts.
Another two buildings—Easton, a nine-unit condo building, and Catalonia, an 81-apartment complex with some affordable units—are going up across the street from Brantwood, the developer’s only active adult lifestyle community.
Architecturally, Brantwood blends with the surrounding 1920s Mediterranean-style buildings as if it has been a part of the area for generations.
Ornate wrought-iron gates open to a Mediterranean-style courtyard anchored by a tiered fountain and landscaped with olive trees and camellias. Wall-mounted sculptures or reliefs adorn the arcade leading to the building entrance.
Behind the towering wood-carved doors is an expansive, light-filled great room. It has a high, wood-beamed ceiling, Saltillo-tiled floors, and California plein-air art on the walls—San Gabriel River, Pebble Beach, mountain meadows, and desert-scapes. Half of the artists lived in Pasadena and the surrounding area.
“My wife and I are interested in the interface of the art trends in Europe at the end of the 19th century and in California at the beginning of the 20th century,” McCormick said, standing in the great room of the building that borrows its name from the English estate where John Ruskin, a Victorian-era British art critic and prominent figure of the Arts and Crafts Movement, retired.
The influence of William Morris, a British textile designer who shared Ruskin’s passion for the movement, is seen in the apartment-level elevator landings that feature his different wallpaper designs.
A botanical Morris tapestry hangs off the great room, which features an oversized wet bar. Designated gathering areas are comfortably furnished for dining or relaxing by the fire of a large antique stone fireplace imported from France.
Residents have access to these and other common areas, including the library, which has sage Farrow and Ball green walls, built-in shelves, a salvaged European fireplace, and French doors that open onto the front courtyard.
There’s a gym off the rear courtyard.
The rooftop garden has a brick patio, brick-lined walkways over crushed granite, and raised planting beds with rows of lavender and rosemary, artichokes, fragrant camellia, grapevines, and fruiting citrus trees. It provides sweeping 360-degree views of the San Gabriel Mountains, Pasadena City Hall, the Prayer Garden at Fuller Theological Seminary, San Rafael Hills, and beyond.
Views also abound from the unfurnished apartments. Units on the second level feature patios, while those on levels three, four and five have small balconies that can accommodate a small bistro table and chairs.
A two-bedroom, 1,235-square-foot apartment model staged for showings has two balconies off the main living room. The dining area opens to a white-tiled kitchen with a center island.
Doors off the main living space to an in-unit washer and dryer.
Each of its airy bedrooms boasts window views, roomy walk-in closets and spacious bathrooms. One has a tub shower, and the other has a walk-in shower.
The apartment model rents for $8,250 monthly and includes concierge services, housekeeping, 24-hour security, technical support and a daily chef-prepared Mediterranean-style meal. But that just barely scratches the surface of what makes Brantwood stand apart.
As McCormick simply puts it, “This is a place to downsize and live an urban life in a community-like setting.”
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