When Jan Colburn readied to move west to Denver from Chicago, her Colorado daughter already had numbers of age-55-plus communities lined up for her to see. But the one she ended up picking wasn’t on that list.
“She took me to lunch at Bacon Social House,” Colburn recalls. That restaurant, it turns out, is right next door to Vita Littleton, a rental-retirement community that opened in 2019 on a site overlooking Littleton’s historic downtown, in whatap become one of Colorado’s most popular dining districts—no fewer than a dozen taverns and take-outs within a few blocks.
“I wanted a place with active people, and once I saw it, I was sold,” says Colburn now, after a year in Vita Littleton.
Colburn was fresh back from a walk into downtown, checking out new shopping and dining thatap opened along Main Street with the end of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Vita Littleton has her completely wrapped by activities (she did five fitness-oriented classes last week)—and kept those opportunities coming all the way through the pandemic when such communities were under the greatest pressure to close them down.
“We kept doing everything,” says Amy Zavala, Lifestyle Coordinator at Vita Littleton, who plans and enables over 100 events and activities a month—designed around a whole-person approach to health and wellness that includes social, intellectual, physical and purposeful aspects. She kicked into high gear as the crisis descended, finding ways to move activities outdoors—yoga, tai chi, brain games, and a series of ‘Summer Nights at Vita’ in its outdoor amphitheater, featuring performers and food trucks. For Veterans Day she arranged a museum exhibit indoors that showcased the histories of 31 former service members living in the community.
Meanwhile, Vita Littleton turned its walkable access to Littleton’s Restaurant Row into a way of supporting downtown during Covid. “We hosted ten local happy hours,” Zavala recalls —events that drew impressive turnouts to some of the best-known bistros, at a moment when owners were grateful for the support.
Testimony as to just how well all of that worked is in Vita Littleton’s retention rate (81% of residents who started the pandemic there stayed on through the crisis). It actually picked up additional residents during the pandemic.
“They did a great job of keeping everything clean,” adds Jan Colburn, noting that the walkability to downtown Littleton’s Light Rail station is another advantage now as attractions in downtown Denver reopen.
When you visit next week (Vita Littleton is welcoming walk-in traffic for the first time since the pandemic began), you’ll see an eye-catching interior and the pool plaza overlooking the dining district; along with a community garden and great access to Sterne Park and bike trails. (Vita has a dozen residents using its bike shop on a regular basis.)
Vita Littleton has no up-front community buy-in (some 55-plus rental communities require a big investment). You’ll see a ‘Hummingbird’ 1-bed/1-bath apartment, $1,995/month; and a 2-bedroom ‘Lark Bunting’—over 1,050 sq. feet, $2,570/month.
And if you really like the community’s looks, Vita Littleton offers a 36-month lease.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.