Southpark Square Senior Apartments by Clover Communities
By Ken McEntee
Andreas and Erika M. never thought they would be happy living in an apartment—until they moved into Southpark Square Senior Apartments, in Strongsville.
“We wouldn’t change this for anything,” says Erika, who returned to Northeast Ohio with her husband and moved into Southpark Square last September.
“The location is perfect. We can walk to the mall and the grocery stores. We love our balcony and the view. Whoever designed the place couldn’t have done a better job. It’s a perfect fit for the senior lifestyle. It’s very practical.”
The blend of practicality, luxury and affordability is the way Clover Management is impacting senior living in Northeast Ohio, says David Woodrum, district manager for Clover, which operates a group of local apartment communities exclusively for the 55-and-over crowd. The recently opened Lorain Pointe Senior Apartments, in Lorain/Amherst marking Clover’s 6th Cleveland area property. The seventh is in development in Olmsted Falls and is scheduled to open in 2019.
“Our 55-and-over communities offer an affordable independent living alternative for people who love their homes, but no longer want to deal with the hassle of mowing lawns, shoveling snow and fixing leaky roofs and faucets,” David explains.
“We offer all of the amenities that are important to people, without them having to break the bank.”
Southpark Square and other Clover communities, David says, offer so many amenities and social activities, residents don’t really have to leave the premises if they don’t want to.
“But more than half of our residents still drive and most of them travel and have a very active lifestyle,” he emphasizes.
Many Senior Living communities include three meals per day in their lease, and they charge between $3,000 and $4,000 per month. At Southpark Square, you can eat where and when you want to, and one-bedroom units start at only $1,050 per month—including electricity, heat, water and cable TV.
“I’ve worked at other retirements communities,” David reveals. “They are nice, and the food may be good, but you can buy an awful lot of groceries for $3,000 a month. Besides, who wants to eat at the same place three times a day for the rest of their life?”
Along with the convenient location and amenities—like an on-site hair salon and a gym—Erika says her new friends and neighbors make Southpark Square a wonderful place to live.
“We all get along so well—it’s like a family,” she says. “We just had a wonderful Memorial Day party with hamburgers and hot dogs in the Community Room. Everybody brings something and pitches in to help. Since the minute we moved in here we’ve felt like we’ve been on vacation every day.”
Andreas and Erika lived in Parma for 31 years until they retired and moved to Chicago to be close to their daughter and grandson. When the time came to come back to Northeast Ohio, they searched for a safe and convenient place to call home. Erika says they were immediately sold on Southpark Square.
“The location is very important,” she says. “At 78 and 77 years old, we don’t drive, but we can walk almost any place we need to go, and if we can’t, Senior Wheels is there to drive us. What more can you ask for? In fact, we just got home from Walmart.”
The apartment units, David says, are spacious and well designed to optimize living area. They feature an open floor plan with oversized kitchens and walk-in showers with grab bars.
“People often have to give up some of their favorite furniture when they move into some smaller apartments, but here you can bring your dinette or a china cabinet,” he says.
“The units are big enough to entertain visitors. And if you have a large group over for a party, you can reserve our family room. Our residents love the convenience of having a stacked washer and dryer right inside their apartments so they don’t have to haul their laundry down the hall.”
Activities and social events provide abundant opportunities to spend time with neighbors and make new friends, David says.
“That’s why we call it a community,” he says.
“We keep a loaded calendar of activities that are coordinated in large part by the residents themselves. People are always gathered in the community rooms for games, movies, parties and other social functions. I think of our communities as places where my mom would want to live. It’s a safe, private place of her own, but when she wants to hang out with other people in the community there are a lot of things going on all the time. It comes without the chaos of a regular apartment complex that isn’t designed for folks 55 and better.”
Along with Strongsville, Clover Management operates senior apartment communities in Parma, Willoughby Hills, Twinsburg, Medina and, Lorain and soon Olmsted Falls.
You can take a tour of Southpark Square by calling Property Manager Kristin Miezin, at 440-732-8224, or you can learn more about Southpark Square and Clover’s other senior living communities online at CloverGroupInc.com.