Retirement communities, now increasingly referred to as active adult communities, used to focus around the clubhouse. Now it seems that that focal point is changing to a retail center, providing products and services for busy retirees who want to save time on errands. Convenience to today’s busy retiree is much more important as many of these retirees are socially active, busy in sports or second careers, as well as volunteerism and hobbies. The clubhouse of the past had activity rooms that had no programmed activities – or at best very few - had little or no retail endeavors, high operating costs and no means of bringing in revenue.

One architectural design firm has created its retail active adult concept prototype for age restricted communities. It is between 11 and 19 acres, or the standard size of a strip mall. The planned mix for this village will be 40 percent retail shops, 30 percent food and entertainment providers and another 30 percent devoted to education and finance.

The planned prototype launched by this firm displays a general store or department store that is about a third the floor space of the usual grocery store. This store will focus primarily on the needs of baby boomers and seniors, including retirement assistance services. A pharmacy in the retail village will specialize in meeting the needs of active adults. It will have a diagnostic room for self checking things like blood pressure. The prototype includes small branches for three banks, a kitchen equipment store, a bookstore, pet store, and one for retirement and seniors needs such as assistive equipment and hearing aids.

A bed and breakfast can also be part of this new active adult retirement community as well, as a place to house friends and out of town visitors.