Active seniors find a home at Album Marana | News

Harold Johnson and his wife Sherry needed a change.

After pastoring for 41 years in other states, he and Sherry packed up and began visiting their children, traveling the country. For more than a year, they wandered. 

“We were looking for a place to land and ended up here,” Harold said.

They had always liked the Southwest. One day, the couple wandered past Album Marana, a place for active adults 55 and older that offers resort-style living. A new community, the Johnsons decided to visit it.

“We stopped here; they were having this open house,” Harold said. “I didn’t think it was going to be a good match for us, but said, ‘Well, let’s see if they’re open.’ It was the grand opening. We walked in the door, …  and signed the lease the next day and have been just thrilled living here.”

“I wanted to live in Florida,” Sherry added. “I wanted to live somewhere where the sun was always shining and there were palm trees and ocean, water.”

She got everything she wanted, and in exchange for the ocean, she got a large, outdoor, heated pool.

Loneliness is a problem for seniors. Studies show that declining health, loss of loved ones and most especially social isolation are all common causes. Album Marana is determined to answer that by offering fun events and providing a space where people can begin to form new friendships and start new lives.

The staff at Album Marana said they believe it is a place where seniors can find the socialization they are missing. The staff keeps that uppermost in its minds and it’s clear that is its driving philosophy. 

“How we do this is we have seven tiers,” said Shane Hatfield, Album Marana leasing professional. “Our seven tiers are about being fit, being whole, being spiritual, curious, social, passionate and organic. We bring a lot of those key factors into our activities and events, which we host daily.”

Why the Album name?

“You make memories here, so photo album,” Hatfield said. “It’s a new chapter in your life. A lot of people are retired and they’re embracing life and having fun, and Album is another way of embracing it.”

Album offers resort-style living, beginning with the outdoor heated pool and firepits. Trainers come in four days a week, there’s a small gym, a large gathering space, an exercise room, a library, a movie theater and a craft room. What used to be called activity directors are now lifestyle coordinators, who plan daily activities and events, all intending to build community.

“We host some really cool social hour events,” Hatfield said. “They are usually themed, like our shamrock shindig. We do birthdays of the month, coffee, donuts, pastries. We do a whole bunch of stuff, so it’s literally bringing the community together and it does. It really does.”

The company that owns the place, Greystar, is selective about who they hire, recognizing that it takes a particular quality to work at Album Marana or any of the Greystar properties.

“Our people on the ground have to love people,” said Emily Clark, director of real estate. “You simply cannot work in this industry without having a deep empathy and understanding and emotional intelligence and truly wanting to be there to take care of our residents.”

During their training, staff learns to treat Album not as a senior warehouse or nursing home but something much more personal.

“This is their home, not an apartment,” Clark said. “It’s their home.”

Interestingly, not all 24 of Greystar’s properties host the same activities.

“Something that we learned very early on when we started this platform, we tried to do, ‘If it works here, multiply it across the country. It’s going to be great,’” Clark said. “So, we did a kind of canned approach to our lifestyle programming initially. We discovered very quickly that what works in Las Vegas didn’t necessarily translate to Orange County, California. … Each property has its own pulse.” 

At any of these properties, residents can be as active and social as they want or as alone as they prefer, but they rarely stay locked in their apartments for long once they see the activities calendar. 

Album is for active seniors. The staff watches out and according to Hatfield, if a resident’s mental health starts to decline, the staff will “discreetly” help that person find another, more appropriate place.

Unlike some facilities, Album Marana is meant for more middle-class incomes, which isn’t to say it is inexpensive. It is just a bit more affordable. It offers one-bedroom apartments starting at $1,495 a month and two-bedroom apartments starting at $2,199, both plus utilities. Each apartment is individually metered, so each resident pays for what they use, not an average fee.

Not just in Tucson

Pennie Brooks lives in Overture Arcadia, a Greystar community in Scottsdale that’s just a bit more upscale.

It’s where she and her dog found her life again, she said. It’s not like her life was over exactly, but she knew she needed something.

“I had been coming out to Scottsdale to visit (my son) but … it was one of those things where I thought, ‘It would be nice to move here for the weather,’ but I had things in Michigan that I had to do,” she said. “But you know what? I needed a change after COVID and just being totally withdrawn, not being able to go anywhere or do anything and then trying to start life all over again.”

Then there was retirement. She was accustomed to being active with her job as manager of a big-box store. Retirement took that away.

“I lost me,” she said. “It just seemed right to turn the page and start a whole new book.”

She left friends and some family behind when she moved from Michigan and with a certain amount of trepidation and excitement, made the move. Moving to a Greystar property made it easier for her to turn the page.

“I got myself back,” she said. 

As one of the first residents in the new Overture property, Brooks made it a point to welcome those moving in.

“Coming here, especially being one of the first people here, the people that were here, we were determined that everybody that came in, to embrace them,” she said. “It was like a worm. It just kept inching along, inching along, grabbing everybody in and it brought me back out of me. Now I have plenty of friends and I’m the go-to person for where we go to get stuff because I was one of the first people here and I know where everything is.”

It turns out Brooks has embraced all the activities. She’s a daily participant and if nothing is scheduled, she said she will “make something happen.”

Monnie Ottersberg also lives at the Greystar community.

A widow, she finds that living at Overture North fills many gaps in her life. 

“Well, No.1, meeting such nice people who live here,” she said. “No. 2, the staff has absolutely been wonderful to me. All of them, they couldn’t be any nicer.”

She said it is different from where she was before.

“I didn’t have any communication with anybody,” Ottersberg said. “Once in a while, they would have something in the clubhouse, but nothing like here.”

She listed all the activities: library, exercise, water aerobics, crafts — the list goes on. Ottersberg has been able to form meaningful relationships with her neighbors. 

“It’s just perfect,” she said. “I love every aspect of it.”

For Ottersberg, there are plenty of opportunities to visit and socialize with her neighbors, but if she chooses, as some do, she can stay at home and forgo activities for a time. It all adds up to a very good quality of life.

“It’s just been the best move I’ve ever made,” she said.

One of the advantages that Sherry Johnson enjoys is the freedom that comes with living at Album Marana. It’s an advantage all Greystar property residents enjoy.

“I think one of the most wonderful things about living in Overture and living here is, if we decide to go, maybe, to Europe for several weeks, you know what? You just close the door and you walk away,” Sherry said. “You never have to worry about anything. You live with no fear on this property. It’s an amazing thing.”