Christine Whelan, FEO
Feb 17th, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 13
The journey from the Clarion to The Willows
Hotel-inspired retirement living is coming soon to Fort Erie. Combining hospitality, health and home care, The Willows by MyLife Retirement Living reveals, this changes everything.
Dr. Sunjay Gupta, MD is the President of The Retirement Living of Sunray Group. His practice has been in the Kitchener / Waterloo region for the last ten years, he currently lives in the Greater Toronto Area, but his attentions are largely on the community of the Greater Fort Erie Area these days.
I spoke with Dr. Gupta over the phone last week. “The Sunray Group is mainly a hotel company,” he began. “We started back in 2006, founded by my dad, the CEO, Mr. Ray Gupta. The President is Mr. Kenny Gibson. My brother, Sandeep, is Vice-President.”
The family business started off with a few properties. “We are now one of Canada’s largest hotel companies in the country with over 60 hotels in our portfolio, with a continued vision on growing the hotel business.”
Why should you care about this?
Gupta joined the company in August. “One of the things with Sunray Group is, we often look at trying to find ways to give back to the community. We work with the city, Toronto specifically, on a number of projects. And even in some of the smaller towns, during the pandemic, we quickly shifted to changing some of our hotel properties into shelters for the homeless, working with refugees coming into the country, providing housing for them, COVID shelters for hospital staff and people for when they were exposed and wanted to protect their families by isolating.
“As we were in the hotel field, we were trying to find ways where we could diversify our portfolio and also find ways to serve the community. With our experience in hospitality, Dad’s vision was to get into the retirement home business.”
In discussing the reasons for this decision, “This way all our eggs are not in one basket, but also because there is such a huge need in taking care of our aging population.”
Dr. Gupta explained further. “I like to refer to the generation where you have two working parents in most families now, grown families where the idea of having the grandparents at home to take care of them has shifted quite a bit because we’re all so career driven and oriented now.”
One of the goals the company has is to work towards losing a lot of the stigma of what retirement homes usually portray.
“When we started to look at ways to do this, it was very easy to see some of these hotels that are in existence right now would be a very natural fit, with different services and accommodations, giving individuals a different feel of what a retirement home can be like.”
That’s when the company started to take a look at areas of need. “The Clarion Hotel on Garrison Road in Fort Erie, with the beautiful common space for seniors to get together in, which helps with isolation, the large rooms, the pool, it just seemed like a good fit for seniors’ living.”
The Clarion: Helping The Fight Against Isolation
“As a doctor, one of the biggest challenges I would have with some of my aging patients is, they were stuck in apartments and they weren’t getting out. Isolation has been such a very real thing so allowing people to get together and make new relationships and connections while knowing there is help available when they need it and they are being taken care of is so important.”
We talked about the location of the building and how it really has the potential to reduce isolation and assist in feeling included with the community. “They can sit outside in the summertime, watch the people and families come and go at the Boys and Girls Club. People on foot, walking around with the bridges right there gives a chance for some of that socialization to happen naturally.”
“I oversee the renovations.” Sunjay described the complete overhaul of the building to make it into what they consider the best model to meet today’s seniors’ needs. More accommodating bathrooms, library, reading room, TV centre, socialization area, lounge.
“There’s a pool there, so we thought it would be good to bring in some aqua-fit instructors. This helps the seniors to keep them moving.”
In looking down the road, “One of the things we are looking at, as we continue to open the property, is providing enhanced services such as dementia and memory care, up on the top floor, so those patients who are needing extra care, have that safe, secure space.”
The Willows: Launching The New ‘MyLife’ Brand Name
Sunray has developed a whole new brand name structure behind their retirement homes. “We currently own and operate three other retirement homes in Ontario. By the middle of this year, including our Fort Erie location, we will have six retirement homes. The Willows is actually the first property we are launching under the new MyLife brand name.”
About The Willow Services
Gupta explained, “It’s service as people need it. When somebody first moves in, there’s always a base rate for the room. Some people will move in and they are fairly independent and maybe they just want some basic help with medication. But as their needs change and grow, then the services we offer will grow as well. Maybe someone will require help every day with bathing, lifting and mobilizing. It’s a different service structure.”
“We are very excited for this opportunity to be in Fort Erie. We are excited that we are able to launch the MyLife brand in the Fort Erie community. We’re looking forward to helping the needs of the community and providing the care and the services.”
This Changes Everything. “The idea behind this,” Dr. Gupta explained, “is with our hospitality background, when we are approaching our care services for our residents, we’re looking to give that vacation feel. Their retirement becomes a permanent vacation.”
Photos
Inside view of The Willows – provided by The Willows by MyLife Retirement Living
