Las Urbanistas

Large businesses haven’t been the driver. Three-quarters of the companies here have fewer than 10 people. These jobs are in construction, restaurants, and retail, which service the influx of seniors, or in some cases, are started by them.

Across the country, the first boomer-aging wave is beginning to hit, with the oldest boomers now entering their 60s. Most are expected to age in place, but some states and locales are working to entice those who will move and bring with them a portion of the boomers’ estimated $3 trillion in assets.

“Many boomers are not going to move, but to the extent they do move, college towns, places with a lot of attractive amenities like St. George, and smaller communities might be the place for them,” says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “There are a lot of places that would like to become those communities.”

The marketing campaigns have begun:

• Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas have set up certification programs for retirement cities; those that qualify will get marketing help.

• Alabama, Florida, West Virginia, and Wyoming have websites, guidebooks, and tax breaks to attract seniors.

• Age-restricted developments – particularly 55-plus – are popping up across the country.

The ranks of 55- to 64-year-olds are projected to grow the fastest in the Mountain West, with New Hampshire, Vermont, and Florida also standing out, according to a May analysis of census data by Mr. Frey titled “Mapping the Growth of Older America.”

Why the West is a draw for seniors

The West is a big gainer largely because of its long streak of economic growth and an attractive set of smaller, less-expensive cities in beautiful settings. St. George epitomizes the trend, posting the fastest national gain in seniors between 1990 and 2005.

“There’s pretty much everything here for whatever you want to do if you are an outdoorsy kind of guy,” says Wheeler.

Boomers are healthier and more active than their predecessors. A recent survey by Del Webb, a retirement community developer, found that a growing number of people over age 55 rank adventure pursuits as very important, with 26 percent citing canoeing/kayaking, 18 percent denoting hiking, and 9 percent naming downhill skiing.

They also want to keep working, and Wheeler is no exception. “I realized that there was more to life than just hitting a golf ball,” he says.

Wheeler used his skills in the printing industry to put together a golf self-help book. He’s distributed some 40,000 copies and sold advertising against it.

Another newcomer to town, Bill Ostler, retired from Silicon Valley in 2004 and now splits his time working as a consultant, teaching college courses, and biking three days a week around St. George. For him, the airport and the local universities were a big draw.

“I’ve got a friend who is a doctor and at 50 he retired and that was it. I thought what a waste of experience and knowledge,” he says.

Mr. Ostler and Wheeler exemplify two new trends emerging as the boomers age, says author Joel Kotkin. They are both “equity refugees,” selling homes in an expensive market and moving to a cheaper locale. And they are extending their careers with the help of airports and the Internet.

“You are seeing a kind of person who is essentially carrying their skill sets and their computer address with them,” says Mr. Kotkin. That’s driving growth in smaller, once remote locales like Bellingham, Wash., Rapid City, S.D., Jackson Hole, Wyo., and San Luis Obispo, Calif. “Places that used to be thought of as second-home, recreation places are now increasingly viable as main residences,” he says. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the location of Rapid City, S.D.]

However, most seniors still want to be near their grandkids – and a good hospital, says Thomas Wetzel, president of the Retirement Living Information Center in Redding, Conn.

“That’s a key thing that some retirees will overlook. They say ‘Let’s go off to the mountains or some place like that,’ ” he says. The trend toward retiring in university towns is partly driven by the quality of their healthcare, he adds.

St. George’s main college, hospital, schools, and airport have all been forced to expand, and the growth has strained the landscape. Managed growth plans are now under debate.

“I think the city, in looking back, wishes it had plans to protect some of the mesas, some of the vistas here,” says Russ Behrmann, head of the St. George Chamber of Commerce.

But as the national slowdown in housing begins to show some signs here, the county is also working to diversify the economy from construction and has added light manufacturing.

“If there aren’t jobs for these [young] people beyond service related jobs, your tax base is going to hurt when Johnny and Jane grow up, and they will have to leave,” Mr. Behrmann says.

Concerns about an unbalanced economy are shared by Peter Francese, a demographer based in New Hampshire, where many towns are building 55-plus housing to attract child-free taxpayers.

“What we are really doing in many ways is ghettoizing the elderly in these places,” says Mr. Francese.

Slowest growth of seniors: New York

But no matter what states and towns do, their populations will be graying dramatically in the coming decades. “The state with the slowest projected growth in 55- to 64-year-olds is New York, where their numbers will still increase by 33 percent from 2000 to 2010,” notes the Brookings report.

That’s because, historically, the majority of seniors do not relocate large distances for retirement. The report projects just over 1 million boomers over 55 moving each year.

This means that many will age in place in the suburbs. A survey by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging found that only 46 percent of American communities have begun to address the needs of a rapidly aging population.

James Dario Jr., a real estate broker, markets former gas station sites, like the one behind him, for retail and residential development.

It may seem surprising, but when it comes to land for residential or commercial development, gasoline stations clean up nicely, real estate brokers say. As a result, they are steadily disappearing from New York City’s five boroughs.

From September 2003 to February of this year, the city lost about 9 percent of its gas stations, declining from 1,837 to 1,670, according to data from the New York Fire Department. Manhattan had the biggest percentage drop, going from 211 gas stations to 186, a loss of 11.8 percent, but Brooklyn was a close second, going from 529 gas stations to 468, a dip of 11.5 percent. In Queens and the Bronx, the number of gas stations dropped by about 8 percent, but the loss on Staten Island was smaller, at 4 percent.

While some of these losses may be attributable to the consolidation of companies that sell gasoline, like BP Amoco, created from a merger announced in 1998, others are caused by the sale of gas station lots for other types of development, including condominiums or retail strips, brokers say.

“These are very attractive development parcels, typically,” said Frank Zuckerbrot, president of Sholom & Zuckerbrot Realty, a commercial real estate brokerage firm based in Queens. Mr. Zuckerbrot said he had marketed a steady stream of gas stations for various types of development over the last decade. “As areas are changing, and some of these main commercial corridors are going to redevelopment, gas stations are being sold.”

These sites are attractive because they are frequently situated on busy corners and are large, typically covering 12,000 to 30,000 square feet. Zoning often allows for expansion, too.

One of the largest former gas stations in Manhattan, at 20th Street and Seventh Avenue, has been developed by the Related Companies into a residential apartment building called the Westminster.

James Dario Jr., a broker with Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates, said he had successfully marketed a handful of gas stations in the last three years that have fetched higher prices as development parcels than if they had remained gas stations.

For instance, a former BP Amoco station at 236-250 Atlantic Avenue, a prime location in Brooklyn not far from the Brooklyn Bridge, that sold in May might have gone for $1 million to $2 million as a gas station. Instead, it sold for $13 million as a residential development parcel, Mr. Dario said. The owner plans a mix of apartments and stores on the site, which covers more than 28,500 square feet.

“That’s one of the only spaces on the Atlantic Avenue corridor with a large amount of retail space available, so it will probably go to one of these national retail companies,” said Mr. Dario, whose brokerage firm is marketing the prospective retail space. “It’s going to be a nice attraction on that corner.”

Mr. Dario also sold a former BP Amoco gas station at 243 Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn for $1.2 million in 2004, when it might have gone for about $400,000 as a gas station, and a Sunoco gas station at 1729 Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn last fall for $3.2 million, which might have fetched about $1.1 million as a gas station.

Property developers said they were acquiring former gas stations as development sites — despite risks associated with possible contamination — because they are some of the few remaining options for development in Manhattan; Long Island City, Queens; and Williamsburg and downtown Brooklyn.

“Gas stations are oftentimes the only underutilized lots in a rapidly developing New York neighborhood and represent opportunities for developers,” said Sara Mirski, managing director of development at Boymelgreen Developers, which purchased a former Exxon gas station at 500 West 23rd Street in Manhattan in October 2005 for residential development.

The company, whose founder, Shaya Boymelgreen, was once in the asbestos removal business, said it already had experience redeveloping another former gas station site.

The lot on 23rd Street is part of the High Line district, which spans 22 blocks from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street on the Far West Side, one of the few areas in Manhattan that still has gas stations. The rest are concentrated on the Far East Side and uptown north of 125th Street, brokers said.

“In Manhattan, there are pretty much no boundaries at this point — every area is a good area for residential development, and gas stations in outlying areas are being scooped up,” said Charles Kingsley, a senior director at the Cushman & Wakefield brokerage firm. “Typically, gas stations make ideal sites, and as development continues out into the boroughs, I believe they’ll be identified there as development sites also.”

Because gas stations are typically only a single story, real estate brokers say there are fewer costs involved in redeveloping the sites.

“With a gas station, there’s very little demolition,” said John Reinertsen, a senior vice president in the Long Island City office of the CB Richard Ellis brokerage firm. “You buy it with the caveat that the seller delivers it environmentally clean, so you put the onus on them, and you give them a number. It’s probably a lot cleaner deal — no pun intended — than most.”

Most developers in New York will not buy a lot unless it has already been cleaned by the seller. That can take some time, but is typically not a deal breaker. Still, some buyers may demand that the property’s environmental cleanup be approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Mr. Dario said.

Some owners of multiple gas stations are even becoming developers themselves, said Eric Anton, an executive director of the Eastern Consolidated brokerage firm.

“I just met with a company that owns 30 or 40 gas stations around the five boroughs,” he said. “The first generation was in the gas business, and now the second generation, as development projects make sense, will be either selling, doing joint ventures or being developers themselves.”

Gas stations may become rarer in the five boroughs, but they most likely will not completely disappear, Mr. Anton said.

“It’s difficult to open new gas stations, due to strict environmental rules,” he said. “As we lose more, the ones that do exist often will increase in value as gas stations.”