Center Pointe Villas/Norwalk Senior Center

Center Pointe Villas, an innovative apartment community for low-income seniors, includes 240 apartments reserved exclusively for seniors age 62 and older who meet county median income guidelines for affordable housing. The community includes two distinct product types located across a major street from one another: the first features 128 “garden style” apartments, built in two-story clusters, while the second consists of 112 “courtyard” apartments in a single four-story building.

Each apartment community includes its own community recreation area, controlled-access parking and other amenities. The apartments are a mix of one-bedroom/one-bath and two-bedroom/one-bath plans ranging from 525 to 700 square feet of living space. Features include patios and balconies, all-electric kitchens, carpeting and vinyl flooring, heating and air conditioning. All ground-floor units and common areas are 100% handicapped accessible and adaptable, and each apartment also includes a 24-hour monitored emergency call system. In addition to the fully-furnished multipurpose recreation rooms, community amenities include a pool and therapeutic spa, professional landscaping, on-site laundry facilities and more. The site is conveniently located within walking distance of shopping, restaurants, health care facilities, churches, commercial services and public transportation.

This community has played a major role in the revitalization of the City of Norwalk’s main commercial area, which had become blighted over the years, including numerous empty lots and abandoned, boarded-up stores. Along with the apartments, we developed a new 20,000 square-foot Senior Center, built adjacent to (and architecturally similar to) the apartments. Featuring large multipurpose meeting and activity areas, conference rooms, recreational facilities and a full commercial kitchen serving hundreds of meals daily, the center is now one of the jewels of the city’s central business district, attracting hundreds of seniors to the downtown area – as well as their families and friends – who might not otherwise have had a reason to visit there.

This development won a Gold Award from the National Council on Seniors’ Housing as the nation’s most outstanding “on the boards” senior project when plans were first announced in 1998.