Frasier

Many of the independent living apartments in The Peaks and The Prairies take in wide views of the Flatirons from a 20-acre campus at 350 Ponca Place in Boulder, Colorado. Frasier is a nonprofit Life Plan Community, also known as a continuing care retirement community, where independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing all share the same grounds. The community opened in 1960 with 100 apartments and today nearly 500 residents share its dining rooms, workshops and clubs.

Care at Frasier steps up in stages, and residents who sign the membership agreement for independent living gain priority admission to assisted living, memory support and skilled nursing on the same campus. The Meadows Assisted Living offers 19 studio and one-bedroom apartments with access to courtyards and gardens, staffed around the clock with a nurse on duty every day. Team members there handle medication management, help with bathing, dressing and meals, nightly room checks, weekly housekeeping and laundry, and scheduled transportation.

The Meadows also holds 19 secure memory support apartments, where a person-centered validation approach shapes each day and the programming includes art, music and pet therapies. Their days connect with the larger Frasier community, and the apartments themselves are secure. The Meadows Day Program welcomes people living with Alzheimer's or other dementia every day from 8:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon, and it is open to the wider community as well as to residents.

The Summit Care Center at Frasier provides around-the-clock skilled nursing in 54 certified beds, along with a separate short-stay rehabilitation unit. Physical, occupational and speech therapists work both inside the care center and in an onsite outpatient clinic. Medicaid is accepted in The Summit Care Center, which is certified for Medicare and Medicaid, while the assisted living and memory support apartments do not accept Medicaid.

From its spot at the center of The Peaks, South Fork Dining faces west toward the Flatirons and is one of three places to eat on campus. North Fork Dining serves breakfast and lunch, Mayme's Market works as a coffee bistro and market, and residents pick an all-inclusive meal plan or a flex plan. Between meals, the Wellness Center holds yoga and meditation classes alongside its salon, acupuncture clinic and aqua-therapy pool.

Residents run their own brewery on campus, and the craft and woodworking shops, the library, a billiards room and a long list of clubs fill out the week. Independent living apartments range from studios to one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, some with dens, and the floor plans include fully electric kitchens, washers and dryers, walk-in closets and emergency call systems. Garden-level apartments open onto patios, and the campus has covered and lighted parking areas.

Pets are allowed in independent living, and residents are welcome to bring their own furniture and artwork. Frasier suits adults who want to move while still independent and expect to stay at Frasier as care needs change. The community keeps a waitlist of more than 800 prospective residents. It also fits couples, since a second person can share an independent living apartment, and residents who want a full week of clubs, classes and shop time close to home.

With nearly 500 neighbors, the campus is large and lively, so someone hoping for a small home-style residence with a handful of housemates may feel more at ease elsewhere. Ponca Place sits in a residential part of Boulder, and a local park and lake link up with Frasier's grounds. East Boulder Community Park, about a quarter mile away on Sioux Drive, adds a pond, multi-use paths, a dog park and pickleball and tennis courts beside the East Boulder Community Center.

A Safeway on Baseline Road sits under half a mile away, and Foothills Hospital on Arapahoe Avenue is about a mile and a half away. Downtown Boulder, with its theater, symphony, ballet, lectures and the Pearl Street Mall, is only minutes away.