An Assisted-Living Complex Rises Out Of The Gravel In Hawleyville

By Andrew Gorosko

Dr Morton Silberstein and his wide, Linda, walk expectantly through a maze of corridors strung with worklights as ranks of construction workers labor on their assigned tasks, laying cable, routing pipes, and installing windows.

Amid the smell of sawdust and the aroma of fresh paint, the geriatric psychiatrist and his environmentalist wife tour their evolving $50 million, 298-unit elderly housing complex in Hawleyville as it rises out of a former sand and gravel mine.

“I’m very pleased… We seem to be pretty much on schedule,” Dr Silberstein said. The doctor said it gives him great satisfaction to transform a site, which had been spoiled by sand and gravel mining, into a facility where people will live happily.

The initial phase of The Homesteads at Newtown, a 100-unit assisted-living complex, is scheduled to open in October.

In recent weeks, workmen have begun laying a 10,000-foot-long water line, which will link The Homesteads to United Water’s public water supply. Laborers also are beginning work on a 3,000-foot-long sanitary sewer main, which will link the progject to the Danbury sewage treatment plant. The extention of public utilities to Hawleyville for The Homesteads is viewed as a stimulus for economic growth in that largely undeveloped section of town. 

Construction work at the 60-acre Homesteads site has gone largely unnoticed by passers-by, as the development is taking place behind a heavy stand of trees about 800 feet north of its driveway entrance at 166 Mt Pleasant Road. The general contractor for The Homesteads is Konover Construction of West Hartford.

“We’ve tried to shelter it as much as possible, to keep it in the confines of the countryside,” Dr Silberstein said. The doctor said he has long contemplated developing the site for an elderly housing complex, having formed the concept in 1995.

Following the creation of 100 assisted-living units in a 95,000-square-foot building, the Silbersteins plan to build 38 condominium units for the independent living section of the complex. The independent housing will enclose about 55,000 square feet of space in the form of duplex, fourplex, and sixplex units. Following that, the developers intend to construct 160 congregate housing units in several buildings. The overall project is slated for completion in late 2003 or early 2004.

As laborers work on the interior of the massive assisted-living building, construction crews are building an interior road and cutting and filling the site where the first 12 condos will be built.

Mrs Silberstein stresses that she and Dr Silberstein are taking pains to preserve the natural aspects of the site to provide a relaxing and peaceful setting for its residents. When completed, the complex is expected to house about 400 elderly residents, and be staffed by more than 60 workers.

Fred Smith, the Silbersteins’ agent, describes the scope of the plans, explaining how the several components of the complex will fit together as it evolves over the next several years. As the project evolves, the Silbersteins want to develop the property with a minimal loss of trees, he said.

The Homesteads is the largest single residential housing complex ever to be built locally. It gained town development approvals in 1998.

The assisted living complex will provide studio apartments, as well as one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Residents will be provided with help performing the activities of daily living. Residents with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia will live within a separate 20-unit wing of the complex equipped with facilities designed for their particular needs.

Assisted living facilities are intended for the frail elderly who do not require supervised medical care. An assisted living setting is intended to maintain an independent lifestyle for the elderly for as long as possible.

The intermediate congregate housing component of the complex will provide food service, house cleaning, and laundry service to residents.

The Homesteads also will have 38 condominium units for younger, healthier senior citizens.

“Here in Newtown, we were fortunate to find a site that was ideal for our purposes. It had been mined previously – disturbed environmentally – so that our efforts could improve [the site]. We were also fortunate to find a forward-looking community, seeking to honor and to hold close a precious heritage and resource – its mature population – by caring for its needs,” Dr Silberstein has said.

“At The Homesteads, all of our efforts are dedicated to fostering the maximum fulfillment of each and every person. And not only for our residents, but for our staff, as well. This is our bedrock philosophy,” according to Mrs Silberstein.

The Homesteads project moved through the town’s land use review process smoothly in 1998. The one sticking point the project did encounter involved some Pocono Road residents’ resistance to plans to extend an emergency accessway from the site to Pocono Road. To address those concerns, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) placed certain conditions on the construction and use of the emergency accessway.

The Silbersteins of Guilford own the Gladeview Health Care Center in Old Saybrook, a 132-bed nursing home and rehabilitation center. Dr Silberstein was in private practice for many years in New Haven. He is a former associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.

 Mrs Silberstein has been an environmental consultant and an advocate of open space preservation and biodiversity.