Innovative Ideas

This is a floorplan from a Penthouse apartment home at Mirabella Portland. It features 9-foot-tall ceilings and extra-large windows to capture the stunning views in three directions. It also has slab granite countertops, wood floors, high-quality carpets, and more!

With more than 150 years of combined experience behind them, the team at Pacific Retirement Services has learned many things. One of the most important is that to become — and remain — a leader in the senior-living sector, an organization must first and foremost be responsive to resident input. Equally important is to be a good steward of operating funds.  Every operational decision must be looked at from a cost/benefit perspective; it would be bad management to do otherwise. At PRS the goal is to deliver high-quality services at the most affordable price point possible. And because PRS’s not-for-profit organizational structure allows it to realize big cost savings, it can always provide the best services affordably.

Another factor of extreme importance in developing and operating senior-living communities is an awareness of the most current societal trends. Actually, it requires a bit more: to deliver what today’s seniors are looking for, a company must actually stay ahead of the curve. That’s why every department within PRS strives to be a leader in innovation. Whether it’s Dining Services, Resident Services, Health Care Services, Facility Services, Transportation, Operations, Information Services, Marketing and Development, Human Resources, or Construction, everyone who works at PRS wants to provide residents with the latest and the greatest.

We go about doing that in several ways. Take the Dining Services staff for example: each day they delight residents by challenging themselves to create fine-restaurant-quality fare at each PRS community. At Mirabella Portland the Dining Services staff has worked with PRS Operations to create a flexible meal plan that allows residents to eat according to their own time frame, not the community’s fixed schedule.

Our Transportation programs are also designed to provide residents with maximum flexibility. For example, at some communities we offer scheduled transportation based on resident input. Mirabella Seattle residents told us that they wanted a weekly shopping excursion that included several specific stops. That excursion is now part of the Transportation plan; they call it the “Pike’s Place Loop.” At Mirabella Portland and Mirabella Seattle, we’re currently looking into a Flex Car Program, where residents can reserve a community car when they need to. At Rogue Valley Manor in Medford, we offer town cars to transport people to medical appointments. It’s this sort of innovative thinking that sets PRS communities apart.

And, of course, PRS is always up-to-date on the latest cutting-edge ideas in home design. In addition to designing larger residences with more square footage, luxurious appointments and refinements, and large windows to take in the fabulous views, we are incorporating elements that are new to senior living.

At Mirabella Portland we’ve created a sixth-floor Rooftop Plaza with garden areas and fire pits for barbeques. At Mirabella San Francisco Bay, we’re creating a Town Square that will foster community involvement and intergenerational communication. At Rogue Valley Manor, we’ve created a professional-quality spa where residents can book an appointment for a massage then follow it up with a sauna and a shower before heading back home. At Trinity Terrace in Texas, we’re building one of the first “point towers” ever offered in retirement living.

Point towers are architecturally designed to offer many incredible advantages to the residents who live in them. They are built with just four to six apartments on each floor, so there are no long hallways to contend with. They offer the best, most efficient use of space, with the maximum amount of square footage going into people’s homes instead of hallways. They also allow for more corner apartments, which translates into more windows, more views, and a greater sense of spaciousness.

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