Novemer 7, 2006

3030 Revived
Watermark changes welcomed at retirement community

By Pam Dawkins
(November 2006 article reprinted with permission from Connecticut Post)

There’s a hold in the ground for a future pool, plans for a greenhouse and men working on the non-functioning air-conditioning system, but perhaps the liveliest sign of change is what is now The Watermark at 3030 park is Duncan.

Duncan, an English cocker spaniel, belongs to Shannon Ruedlinger, the executive direction who came on board when The Watermark LLC purchased the property for a receiver in August for more than $40 million.

“This is a serious group of investors … who want to sustain and grow the operation of 3030 Park,” Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi said.

Fabrizi, who remembers “borrowing” lumber from the 3030 Park’s 1968 construction site to build a neighborhood tree house, said he’s gotten positive feedback from residents.

For now, Duncan and Ruedlinger are living in a vacant apartment in the upscale retirement community on Bridgeport’s Park Avenue. The dog, Ruedlinger said, stays in his office during the day and is already making friends with the residents.

Duncan — and the acceptance now in the building of most pets — is just one of the changes at 3030.

The building-wide air-conditioning system is being repaired and should be working by the time it’s needed in 2007, Ruedlinger said. The next project will be apartment renovations that will include combining smaller apartments to make larger ones.

The latter project isn’t a new idea. The previous owners of 3030 Park went through the Bridgeport City Council in September 2004 to secure about $38 million in bonds for renovations and expansion. Although the city bonded for the funds, it was not responsible for repaying them.

“The money that The Watermark paid [to buy 3030 Park] would go back to the investors” who bought the bonds, Fabrizi spokeswoman Caryn Kaufman said.

About a year ago, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, on behalf of the state Department of Social services, put a court-appointed receiver in charge of 3030 Park. That move, amid charges of financial irregularities, came shortly after another receiver took over at 3030 Park Fairfield Health Center; a nursing home owned by 3030 park.

The community’s board put President and Chief Executive Marianne D. Keevins on administrative leave, eventually moving her off the payroll and out of 3030 Park.

“We’re delighted that there are significant improvements in the physical plant and management, which seemed to augur very well for the [residents’] quality of life,” Blumenthal said last week.

The attorney general has seen the changes in person. He attended and introductory party to introduce the company to the residents and community at large less than two weeks ago.

But the investigation continues into the community’s previous owners and manager, focusing on how much money might have been misused and over how long a period of time.

Ruedlinger knows about 3030 Park’s recent troubles, but said that is in the past.

“I don’t know of many fences … we have to mend. What was, was,” and the Watermark is a new company with “significant financial resources.”

David Freshwater leads The Watermark LLC investment group and the related development company The Freshwater Group. In the mid-1980s, Freshwater founded The Fountains brand, which develops, buys, owns and manages nursing homes, retirement communities and related businesses. He sold that company to Sunrise Senior Living in June 2005.

Reudlinger joined The Fountains in 1996, then left in 2004. In April, he said, Freshwater ask him to lead 3030 Park.

“The residents were so gracious. They were not surrounding us with complaints,” Ruedlinger said of his first weeks on the job. He was also impressed with the longevity of the staff; many have been with 3030 Park for decades.

“Whatever it takes,” seems to be the mantra among the staff and 147 residents, Reudlinger said.

Work on the apartments could begin as soon as November, he said, with some ready by mid-2007. The new owners also are expanding a second-floor art gallery, he added.

When done, 3030 Park will have 205 apartments in the main building, plus 13 new cottages, 24 assisted living apartments, 22 skilled nursing rooms and 12 to 14 rooms for patients with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

There was some neighborhood opposition, he said, but the company now has all the zoning approval and the opponents attended the open house.

According to a price sheet in a renovated one-bedroom apartment, the buy-in is $173,800, or $293,100 if a resident chooses to get 90 percent of the cost back when they leave. Residents in that apartment — all the floor plans and prices are different — would pay $2,415 a month, which includes some meals, utilities and other services.

On Nov. 6, the Bridgeport City Council is schedule to vote on a tax adjustment for future development. If approved, Fabrizi said, the company would have six to eight years to pay the taxes on new development.

“It should pass,” he said. "It’s the proper thing to do” to sustain and grow the facility."