The Vista Breaks Ground! New Senior-Living Community Slated to Open Late 2020

Several Vista Charter Residents, key Christian Health leaders and staff, and local dignitaries gather to help break ground on CHCC’s Wyckoff/Hawthorne campus at the future site of The Vista.

The Vista, Christian Health’s (CHCC) new Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), broke ground earlier this winter. After much anticipation, planning, and approvals, The Vista is now poised to welcome area residents who have reserved their Vista apartment home and will celebrate the holidays at The Vista in 2020.

“After many years of careful planning and valuable discussions throughout our community, we are so excited to see The Vista begin to rise and become a valued addition to Christian Health,” said Douglas A. Struyk, President and CEO of CHCC. “Our efforts were not just focused on building and design, but also on creating a community among future residents who are making The Vista a part of their life plan. The nearly 200 men and women who represent our Vista Charter residents have tremendous life stories and experiences that, collectively, will make The Vista a vibrant and active community in of itself. While many of them hail from northern New Jersey, some are coming from as far away as California. We are so thankful to be in midst of this exciting expansion of our service to the community.”

Breaking ground on its existing 78-acre campus, CHCC is actively clearing the site and creating a roadway that will serve as the main thoroughfare for construction vehicles at the intersection of Sicomac and Cedar Hill avenues. Away from the busyness of Sicomac Avenue, and situated deep into the existing CHCC campus, the site of where The Vista will ultimately be built is also experiencing active site clearing in preparation for building construction. As site clearing and tree removal are actively taking place, useable lumber from the property is being saved and will be repurposed in certain areas and wooden features throughout The Vista. Approvals have been received to build up to 199 apartment homes on the site.

Nearly 200 active seniors, made up of individuals and couples, have already selected and secured their Vista apartment homes with a deposit and signed residency contracts. Some have selected smaller floor plans of about 1,000 square feet, while others have opted for the largest floor plans that are almost 3,000 square feet. With 20 different floor-plan options, three refund options, and a fee-for-service or Life Care contract option, area seniors have expressed strong interest in all that The Vista will offer. While several floor-plan options are sold out, many remain for potential Vista residents to secure their new homes with added benefits for signing their residency contract early.

An exquisite senior community nestled on the Wyckoff/Hawthorne campus of CHCC, The Vista will be an intimate community with an abundance of amenities for a truly maintenance-free lifestyle. The community will feature three dining venues, a cultural arts center, a wellness center that includes a state-of-the-art fitness center and an indoor heated pool and spa, and programming and activities that offer educational lectures, spiritual and cultural activities, and planned social events and outings all backed by the strength, history, and reputation of CHCC.

“The size of The Vista attracted us, and the amenities are exactly what we wanted,” said Lorraine Oechslin, a Vista Charter Resident. “Other communities are just too big for us. And as you become older, you become more educated about what is important to you and what you are looking for. At The Vista, we can protect our assets and leave a legacy for our children.”

Why is a CCRC like The Vista so Needed in Northern New Jersey?

Fortunately, average life expectancy continues to rise. With more and more seniors living longer than ever before, and leading active and independent lives, communities continue to see a growth in retirement-living options to accommodate those who want to remain close to the neighborhoods, friends/family, social activities, houses of worship, fitness centers, and health-care professionals most familiar to them.

CCRCs are a sought-after senior-living option because they allow residents to truly “age in place.” CCRCs provide both the resident and the resident’s loved ones peace of mind in knowing that should he/she require higher levels of care, it’s available all on one campus.

CCRCs offer more than just a place to live independently. Consider an average retiree’s lifestyle: whether they are single, married, divorced, or widowed, seniors no longer want to care for a large empty home, or manage landscaping or inclement weather challenges. Their intent is on staying active and social, knowing the health benefits of both. Informal polls and surveys suggest most seniors prefer not to live with their adult children and grandchildren. Peripherally, their loved ones are often burdened with worry wondering if mom is faring well in a big house all alone, or if dad is eating healthy and often. Those worries are amplified during heavy snow or damaging storms.

“What we are looking forward to the most about living at The Vista is the ease of socializing with friends new and old, and being able to pursue our hobbies without worrying about the upkeep of a house,” said Margot Badenhausen, a Vista Charter Resident. “And after several storm cleanups, snow plowing, and other household repairs, we are ready for someone else to tackle those responsibilities.”

At a good CCRC, active, older adults 62 and up not only live in a beautifully maintained and safe, secure residence, but activities, services, and programs to socialize, grow, and maintain overall health and wellness are abundant. The knowledge of close-by health care is an added benefit, especially to adult children and loved ones.

Studies have also shown that living in a CCRC extends a fuller, healthier, and improved quality of life for an average of seven more years. Residents living in a CCRC can be as active or relaxed as they choose.

The Best of the Best

The Vista has gathered the best-of-the-best senior-living design, development, architecture/engineering, and programming consultants to help create a unique community that applies the industry’s top standards and best practices to establish a community like no other.

“During the local approval process for The Vista, CHCC proposed and committed to construct a community with many safety measures above and beyond what is required by state regulations,” said Doug Struyk. “Our standards for excellence at The Vista will be a prime example of building and developing a residential community that has a strong focus on safety.”

Local and national accolades deem a number of these firms to be among the best in their industry.

Specializing in award-winning design for retirement living and senior-care facilities, Merlino Design Partnership is an internationally recognized firm with nearly 50 years of experience. The firm has lent its creative expertise to projects including active-adult retirement communities, independent living, assisted living, nursing facilities, hospitals, medical-office buildings, and medical suites. Merlino Design Partnership has been recognized for its innovative design projects, with accolades including the 50+ Housing Council’s Best of Seniors Housing Design Awards and the AIA Design for Aging Review’s Ten Year Award of Excellence. Through Merlino Design Partnerships work, The Vista was recently nationally recognized for its design and selected as one of only eight finalists in the country in the 2019 Environments for Aging (EFA) Design Showcase, a competition for design excellence.

LAN Associates, a full-service engineering, planning, architecture, and surveying firm, has developed projects for a wide range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, religious institutions, housing authorities, boards of education, and governments ranging from municipal to federal. The firm is celebrating more than 50 years of servicing clients, and in that time has completed over 29,000 projects. LAN Associates of Midland Park, New Jersey, frequently appears on the ENR Top 100 Design Firms List for the tri-state area, along with being named to Zwieg’s White Hot Firm list. LAN Associates was also voted the best architectural firm and one of the top three environmental firms in New Jersey by NJBIZ readers in 2018.

A nationally recognized leader in the senior-housing market, LECESSE Construction is responsible for the construction and renovation of a multitude of private and public buildings, including health-care facilities, senior communities, and higher education, over the past 60-plus years. Many of the company’s projects have received accolades including the Best of 50+ Housing Awards from the National Association of Home Builders and the Independent Living Award from the Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Awards.

A Much-Anticipated Vision is Becoming a Reality

Although it took several years to receive all necessary approvals for The Vista, the timing is ideal for this new community since it answers community demand for a new local senior residence. Much care, thought, and planning went into its development, and both Wyckoff and Hawthorne townships are ready to welcome The Vista’s Charter Residents.

Slated to open in late 2020, The Vista’s construction is estimated to be 20 to 22 months from ground breaking to completion.

Make Way for a New Main Entrance… and Intersection

Sicomac Avenue will soon welcome a traffic signal at the Cedar Hill Avenue intersection. The signalization offers a much safer intersection and creates a new main entrance to CHCC and The Vista. As mandated by the County of Bergen, this county road will also be widened to accommodate the signalization.

For more information about The Vista, contact Julie Lee at (201) 848-7769 or jlee@chccnj.org, or visit TheVista.org. The Vista Information Center is located in Cedar Hill Plaza, 525 Cedar Hill Ave., Wyckoff, and offers a first-hand look at the vision of the community with a full-scale model, level plans, floor plans options, and more. Evening and Saturday hours available; open house is offered the first Saturday of every month. Appointments are encouraged; walk-ins welcome.

About The Vista

The Vista is Christian Health’s new Continuing Care Retirement Community located on its Wyckoff/Hawthorne campus. An intimately sized independent-senior community, The Vista offers beautiful craftsman-style architecture amidst a unique woodland setting with generously sized apartment homes, and abundant amenities and programming designed to promote total health, wellness, and quality of life. For more information, visit: TheVista.org

About the Christian Health

CHCC provides a broad continuum of high-quality, compassionate care, offering superior senior-life, short-term rehab, and mental-health services. As a non-profit organization, we deliver Person- and Family-centered Care to our community based upon the Christian principles on which we were founded more than a century ago. For more information, visit: ChristianHealthCare.org.