THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504150224
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON
BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Georgina March hates Arizona. She hates the monotony of 300 days of sun, hates the rock gardens that are Tucson's equivalent of green lawns.
It took three years after moving to a retirement community outside of Tucson from her native New York to realize she hated it, and another seven to find a suitable replacement.
In a few months, March, 70, will move to Virginia Beach. It's a place she's visited just twice in her life - once on vacation and once last year to pick out her apartment at a retirement community, Atlantic Shores.
But the temperate climate, the change of seasons and the proximity of the ocean and mountains convinced her to relocate for what she hopes will be the last time.
March's move will be just fine with officials in the city of Virginia Beach.
Someone who doesn't have children to educate, who has disposable income and time on her hands, who typically becomes an active participant and volunteer in her community: March is just the sort of new resident the city likes, says Robert Ruhl, business development manager for the Department of Economic Development.
The state would like more people like her, too. A report completed this year by Virginia's Office for the Aging notes that, in general, retirees can ``insure a relatively stable source of income with positive impact on tax revenues, employment and business opportunities.''
So it's good economic news that this year, for the first time, Virginia ranked among the top 10 destination states for retirees. The state's big appeal: It's part of the South.
There are lots of changes going on in the South,'' said sociologist Charles F. Longino Jr. of Wake Forest University. ``It doesn't seem as provincial to people from big northeastern cities as it did at one time. It also seems like a more accepting kind of place for people with cultural differences.''
Also, many Southern cities are close to major airports, an important factor for transplanted retirees who like to travel and visit family.
Building on its region's appeal, Virginia hopes to lure even more retirees.
Thelma Bland, commissioner in the Office of Aging, predicts legislation next year would create a formal marketing program to attract retirees.
Some other states and localities have already begun such efforts.
South Carolina, for instance, helped develop a 3,000-acre retirement community in the mid-1980s and then worked with developers to market it. The university community of Columbia, Mo., launched an advertising campaign three years ago to lure wealthy retirees to its town. And within Virginia, the Charlottesville/Albemarle area is investigating a similar program.
The reasons are simple: money and jobs.
A lot of people try to group retirees into one glob of old people,'' explained Janet Doyle, executive assistant for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging in Charlottesville. ``But they have more disposable income than the rest of us, especially those who move here,'' Doyle said. ``They buy the expensive toys for their grandchildren, go out to lunch and dinner, volunteer in our communities.''
In fact, economists estimate it takes 3.7 factory jobs to equal the same economic impact on a community as one new retiree household.
In general, retirees who are in good health have enormous expendable income, said David Wall, editor of Retirement Living, based in Lenoir, N.C. His magazines tout the advantages of retiring to specific states or regions, including Virginia.
``Their children have left the house, they're wrapping up a lifetime of work and career, and they have money again. They buy about 60 percent of all luxury cars, they buy luxury real estate, and they have pensions and Social Security checks to spend,'' he said.
March, for instance, is buying a condo in Virginia Beach. She also plans to purchase a computer as soon as she's settled.
Many retirees also travel extensively, a boon for the state's tourism industry, Bland noted.
Overall, said sociologist William H. Haas III, of the University of North Carolina-Asheville, the average American ``migrant retiree'' spends about $35,000 a year in the local economy.
They especially benefit the housing, financial, health-care and consumer-goods market segments.
But there may be an economic downside to an influx of older people as well. As retirees age, they could become a drain on a community's resources.
Haas disputes that. ``These people pay for their own health care. They don't overburden the health-care system,'' he said.
Even when they do become frail and need institutional care, Haas said, many transplanted retirees still have fairly substantial wealth and income.
At Atlantic Shores, most residents are purchasing long-term care insurance, said Jacque Bowen, sales manager. That way, if they need nursing-home care, government won't have to pay for it.
Atlantic Shores' parent company, Rauch & Co. of Chicago, chose Virginia Beach as its first Virginia site, Bowen said, because of its proximity to the water and its mild weather.
At Westminster-Canterbury in Virginia Beach, an upscale retirement community that opened in the early 1980s, about 18 percent of the community's 428 residents are from out-of-state.
Steve and Mary Johnson, who moved to Westminster-Canterbury in 1982 from Maine, chose the bayfront luxury high rise to be close to their daughter, who lives in Chesapeake, and for the temperate winters.
``The area has a lot to offer,'' Mary Johnson, 76, said. ``It's a city and yet it's not. You still have the small-town friendliness that you don't get in a large city.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
RETIREMENT FLOCK
Illustration
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
[Color Photos]
Mary and Steve Johnson, who moved to Westminister-Canterbury in 1982
form Maine, chose the bayfront luxury high rise for the temperate
climate and to be close tp relatives.
Specialty magazines, which tout the advantages of retiring to
specific states or regions, appeal to retirees looking to relocate.
[Postcard illustration]
by CNB