Published November 2001

The Village opens to meet need in Granite Falls

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

The past few weeks have been busy ones for Ann VandenHaak, General Manager of The Village at Granite Falls.

As contractors have been laying carpet and tile at Snohomish County’s newest retirement community, VandenHaak has been interviewing for staff positions, holding open houses and giving tours to interested parties — all in preparation of the facility opening this month at 302 N. Alder Ave.

But VandenHaak, who previously managed the Harbor Tower Village retirement center in Oak Harbor and worked with Oak Harbor’s adult day-care program, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s exciting,” VandenHaak said about being a part of Granite Falls’ first retirement community. And the feedback from area residents has added to that excitement.

“Most people are going, ‘Well, it’s about time Granite Falls had something like this,’ ” she said.

Trish Osgood, President of the Greater Granite Falls Chamber of Commerce, agrees.

“We have a lot of senior housing but not a retirement community, not one that encompasses the need for the elderly in this town or for (those coming from) other towns,” she said.

So far, VandenHaak has received deposits for eight of the community’s 45 rooms, but she expects that once people get a chance to see it in its finished form, with its tiled entrance, cozy sitting areas, elegant dining room and its many amenities, renting will go like “gang busters.”

Among those amenities, included with the price of rent, are lunch and dinner prepared daily, weekly housekeeping, scheduled transportation to doctor appointments, staff on hand around the clock and activities planned by an activities director with input from residents.

The facility, operated by Seattle-based Gencare Inc., also houses a hair salon, laundry facilities where residents can do laundry at no cost, extra storage room, computer access, a library, guest accommodations and a social room for activities.

There also is a gallery of historical photos of Granite Falls for residents and visitors to enjoy.

Monthly rental rates are $1,175 to $1,300 for a studio, $1,600 to $1,775 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,790 to $2,200 for a two-bedroom apartment. The rental price includes all utilities except telephone service. A second-person fee, smoking fee and pet fee are added to the base rent when applicable.

For residents that need special care, such as help bathing, eating, dressing, medicine reminders and the like, a home health-care agency — Retirement Home Care Inc. — has rented space on site.

Operating independently of The Village, RHCI offers its services on a menu-based points program with a scale for charges, said Leon Grundstein, President of Gencare and part owner of The Village. And those charges are “above and beyond what we charge for rent.”

Once occupancy at The Village hits 50 percent, another 15 apartment units will be built, VandenHaak said. Kirkland-based DBG Inc. has been the general contractor.

The cost of the project, when all 60 units are completed, will be about $4.5 million, said Grundstein, whose company also operates Scriber Gardens at Lynnwood and a number of other retirement communities in the Puget Sound area.

That’s quite an investment, but one that Grundstein said needed to be made in the community of 2,347.

“It’s been an area that has been growing quite a bit and overlooked by a lot of business people — kind of a bedroom community to Everett, Kirkland, Bothell and, in some cases, Bellevue and Seattle,” he said. It’s an area that has “not had any service to the elderly to speak of,” Grundstein said. “This would meet those needs.”

For more information on The Village, call 360-691-1777.

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