Anchorage Daily News

A good Samaritan effort intended simply to help an elderly Fairbanks widow find housing has evolved into a plan for the development of a retirement community for active Fairbanks seniors. It is an effort that Karen Parr envisions as a model for other areas of Alaska.

Area residents are already signing up and putting refundable deposits down for apartment and condo residences in the Raven Landing Senior Community, which Parr said will be "a very cooperative, egalitarian, friendly, non-snobbish place.

"We hope our model can be modified by other towns in Alaska," said Parr, a longtime Fairbanks resident now retired. "The idea is you can move in and make a home that is the way you want it, and I can stay here until they carry me out."

The initial two apartment buildings and two condo buildings, plus the community center, are expected to cost $20 million, she said.

"We need a lot more of these in Alaska, and we are hoping our experience can break ground for others," said Parr, 77, who has signed up herself. As the grandmother of three and great-grandmother of nine area residents, "I don't want to go anywhere," she said.

So far 84 couples and individuals have put down $500 to get on the list for condos, while another 45 people have paid $100 to get on the waiting list for apartments. The money, all stowed in an escrow account, is refundable until construction starts, Parr said. Construction on the first building is to begin in the spring. A move-in date for residents has yet to be announced.

Seven years ago, when she was helping her friend look for housing, Parr said she found few options. The Alaska Pioneers' Home in Fairbanks had a 4- to 6-year waiting list, and others would not take her friend because her income wasn't low enough. The woman had to settle for a little apartment where she is alone, with no social connections, Parr said.

Now board chair of the nonprofit Retirement Community of Fairbanks, Parr is working to build the project to ultimately house up to 150 seniors able to pay for their own needs in a continuing care community near the heart of downtown Fairbanks.

Raven Landing Senior Community will include apartment rentals and condominiums to be purchased, will be adjacent to affordable housing being built for families with low to moderate income, and eventually, will have a community center.

The site, occupied for half a century by Korean War-era Fairview Manor military and low-income housing, lies a short distance from the public library, swimming pools, bowling alleys, movie theaters, retail shops and an older residential area.

Bettisworth North, an architectural firm with offices in Fairbanks and Anchorage, is designing the center. Owner architect Charles Bettisworth has donated all of his time for the project, plus an additional financial contribution to the effort, Parr said.

Cristoph Falke, who is working on the project with Bettisworth, noted that all units would be designed using criteria of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They will also have balconies and parking that is heated or otherwise protected, he said.

Raven Landing is to be built by Criterion General Inc. of Anchorage. Criterion also has the contract for the adjacent affordable housing project now underway. Criterion project manager Kyle Scalis said the company has built other affordable housing projects for income-qualified families in Anchorage, Girdwood, Wasilla and Kenai.

The residences will provide a continuum ranging from total independence to many forms of assistance with daily living, without residents having to move to new living quarters. Apartments will range from efficiency-style to two-bedroom units, each with private bath and kitchenette, all totally accessible.

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