The BulleTin • Sunday, May 23, 2021 D3
Multigenerational living
‘Together as a family’
BY MICHELE LEMER
Special To The Washington Post
L
ike many families who
experienced the severe
disruption of the coro-
navirus pandemic, Jan-
ice and Don Markell made a
major life change by asking Jan-
ice’s mother to live with them,
accelerating their plan for an
eventual move to Florida.
“We were living in Montvale,
New Jersey, and my mother
was in assisted living nearby,
but she wasn’t able to leave, and
we couldn’t visit her,” says Jan-
ice, 61. “Our son has lived in
Lakewood Ranch near Sarasota
for a few years, and we planned
to move there eventually our-
selves.”
The solution for the family
is a newly built home in the
Lake Club section of Lakewood
Ranch designed specifically for
multigenerational living.
“It was very important for
my mom to have her own space
and privacy yet be with the
family, too,” Janice says. Edna,
91, has a wing with a living
room, bedroom and bathroom
as well as direct access to a lanai
and to the kitchen. Janice’s hus-
band, Don, 74, is a real estate
broker in New Jersey who plans
to get his license in Florida.
Spencer, their 26-year-old son,
has his own wing in the house
with a sitting room, bedroom
and private bathroom.
“We didn’t expect to do this
so quickly, but we felt that the
pandemic restrictions would
last a long time, and we wanted
to be together as a family,” Jan-
ice says. The family spent $1.7
million on their new home af-
ter selling their home and the
home of Janice’s mother in New
Jersey, which had been empty
while she was in assisted living.
Lakewood Ranch appealed
to them because it’s a multi-
generational community spe-
cifically designed for a healthy
lifestyle and activities for every
age group.
“We didn’t want to be in an
active-adult community,” Jan-
ice says. “My mom said she
was happy to move to Flor-
ida except she didn’t want to
be around ‘old people’ even
though she’s 91. We love be-
ing in a mixed-age commu-
nity with lots of young families
around.”
The upheaval created by the
coronavirus pandemic led to
an increase in the number of
homes purchased for multigen-
erational households, which
rose to 15% between April and
June 2020, according to the Na-
tional Association of Realtors.
That represents the highest per-
centage of multigenerational
homes since NAR began track-
ing the trend in 2012 after the
Great Recession and was up
from 11% between July 2019
and March 2020.
Multigenerational house-
holds include adults bringing
their parents to live with them
for caregiving purposes or to
help with child care. In addi-
tion, multigenerational house-
holds can include adult chil-
dren living with their parents
for cost savings or because they
prefer to share a home. During
the pandemic, NAR research-
ers found the top reason to
purchase a multigenerational
home was for aging parents to
move into the home. Before the
pandemic, multigenerational
home purchasers were evenly
split between those with adult
children moving back home
and aging parents.
A family plan
Lakewood Ranch, one of the
largest planned communities
in the country with 50 square
miles of property, has been
the best-selling multigenera-
tional community in the coun-
try for nine years, according to
RCLCO, a real estate consulting
firm. The community has more
than 41,000 residents; a hospi-
tal; schools; a main street with
theaters, shops and restaurants;
a farmers market; sports com-
plex; the Sarasota Polo Club;
three town centers; five neigh-
borhood shopping centers; and
more than 120 miles of trails.
“The decision to make Lake-
wood Ranch a multigenera-
tional community rather than
a retirement community was
made 27 years ago when the
development was first planned,”
says Laura Cole, senior vice
president of LWR Communi-
ties, developers of Lakewood
Ranch. “The planners wanted
this to be a family-oriented
community of primary resi-
dences, not a vacation home or
retirement destination.”
The planned community
has 32 villages, with 40% of the
land in the older villages des-
ignated as open space. Newer
villages have 60% of their land
designated for open space in-
cluding parks and trails. Each
village has its own amenities
such as a swimming pool and
fitness center. More than 60
clubs are available to join, and
there are planned activities in
the villages and for the entire
community.
“Depending on what their
priorities are, Lakewood Ranch
offers something relatively af-
fordable that checks all the
boxes for their interests and
hobbies,” says Josh Graeve,
vice president of sales for Pulte
Group in the Southwest Florida
market. Pulte sells multigener-
ational homes in three villages
at Lakewood Ranch and sells
homes in an age-restricted vil-
lage for people 55 and older.
Cole moved to Lakewood
Ranch a few years ago and then
her parents moved into a home
in one of the age-restricted vil-
lages.
“My own experience speaks
to the intent of Lakewood
Ranch to be multigenerational,”
Cole says. “My parents are close
to doctors and everything else
they need, and like the mainte-
nance-free living. Eventually, if
they need more care, they can
move into one of the senior
housing buildings in the com-
munity and I’ll still be nearby.”
The site plan for the com-
munity is designed with the
goal that every home is within
1 1/2 miles of a grocery store
and a neighborhood shopping
center and within five miles of
a town center, Cole says. Parks
and trails connect the homes
with the shopping areas, recre-
ational amenities and schools.
Homeowners pay $15 annually
to support a community activ-
ities organization that sponsors
clubs.
Photos by Saul Martinez/for The Washington Post
From left, Ashley, Felicia, Bobby, Abby, Karen and Dave Wilson at their
home that is being built in Mallory Park at Lakewood Ranch, Florida.
“We wanted a place with plenty of private space for [his mom, Karen]
in Florida, so we chose a house with a multigen suite with a living area,
bedroom and bathroom,” Dave says.
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