LUXURY HOME SALESSLOW DOWN IN 2015

TRADITIONcaregiving

] Company McPeak’sAssisted Living] Owner James McPeak Jr.] Founded 1956] Beds 51] Employees 25

At a glance

SHERYL NANCE-NASHBYSpecial to Newsday

Caregiving is a familytradition for the Mc-Peaks. Sixty years ago,registered nursesJames and Katherine

McPeak founded McPeak’sAssisted Living in Patchogue.Today, their son James Mc-Peak Jr. runs the 51-bed busi-ness, housed in a Victorianmansion built in 1924.

With more than 75 assistedliving facilities on Long Is-land, including many oper-ated by big providers such asAtria, Sunrise and TheBristal, there’s a lot morecompetition than there wasdecades ago. There are anumber of options for poten-tial residents, and for prospec-tive employees.

ButMcPeak, 60, says his facil-ity’s small size can be an advan-tage. For example, “huge facili-

ties may not be a good fit forsomeonewith cognitive impair-ment,” he says; theymay be bet-ter off at a smaller place.

While McPeak’s has a fewopenings right now, he said hisbusiness did not take a hit as bigplayers have moved into theLong Islandmarket. In fact, Mc-Peak said, the big chains some-times refer people to him.

Competitive pricing hashelpedMcPeak’s thrive, he said.Basic monthly rent is $3,000 fora semiprivate room.

‘Homey atmosphere’Jennifer FitzPatrick, author of

“Cruising Through Caregiving:Reducing The Stress of Caringfor Your Loved One,” says thatsomeolder adults and their fam-ilies prefer an independent overlarge chains. She offers this ad-vice for McPeak’s and otherLong Island independents:“Focus on marketing how youare different. For example, is

your niche your excellent foodprepared by an award-winningchef or your stellar memorycare services? Develop a nicheor brand that makes youunique.”

Joe Palazzo certainly thinksMcPeak’s is one-of-a-kind. Hismother Lucy is 84 with demen-tia. She has been atMcPeak’s fortwo years. “It’s a homey atmos-phere being in a Victorian fish-ing captain’s house, it’s not insti-tutional at all,” says Palazzo,who lives in Islip. He re-searchedoptionsand feels confi-dent in his choice. “They takethe utmost care of my mom. Ineverworry about her.”

Residents enjoy picnics inthe Japanese garden on thegrounds, have a beauty andbarber shop and activities in-cluding arts and crafts, cards,games, and guest entertain-ment. You might catch resi-dents watching DVDs of“The Dick Van Dyke Show”

or “The Carol Burnett Show,”or making a flower gardenfrom paper plates to be dis-played in the sitting area.

When Therese LeMaire firstwalked into McPeak’s, sheheard big band music playingand smelled the aroma of some-thing delicious cooking forlunch. “I couldn’t help butsmile,” says LeMaire, who livesin Florida. Her 89-year-oldmother has lived there for abouta year.

“I was concerned about mymother being acclimated to anew environment,” she says.“She’s made friends . . . andtells me how much she enjoysthe meals, musical perfor-mances and especially pet dayonWednesday. This is a familyenvironment.”

Pressure on wagesMcPeak, who has a bache-

lor of science degree inhealth services administra-tion, says it was “natural forme to help my mother oper-ate the business when my fa-ther passed in 1997.”

He says his goal is to be surenot only residents are happy,but staff, too. In an industryknown for high turnover, heproudly lists longtime employ-ees: “Our head of recreation re-tired after 28 years. Our cookhas beenhere 16 years, ourman-ager 13.”

McPeak says no one makesminimum wage and, at 25 em-ployees, he is somewhat over-staffed. One of his challenges ishow he will handle the state-mandated minimum wage in-crease in a couple of years. “Itwill put pressure on wages,” hesays.

Regulatory and legislativechanges keep him up at night.“Assisted living and adulthomes can be forgotten or dis-missed when it comes to thestate budget,” he says.

As McPeak’s celebrates its60th year in business, heknows it’s not time to get com-fortable.

Building relationshipsFitzPatrick recommends

McPeak build and maintain

See CARE on A38

The global luxury housingmarket lost some of its sheenlast year as financial marketsbecame unsettled and manywealthy buyers began to lookfor less expensive homes.

“The return of realism,” ishow Dan Conn, chief executiveof Christie’s International RealEstate, described the high-endmarket.

Sales in a sector whose aver-age home prices start at $2.2million slowed in 2015, increas-ing by 8 percent, half its 2014pace. The declinemost likely re-flects stability rather than weak-ness, according to a report re-leased last week by Christie’s.

Properties in London andHong Kong are sitting on themarket longer. On average,homes sold for prices 19 per-cent below the original askingprice, compared with 14 per-cent below the asking price in2014. The number of luxury-home sales in the often siz-zling Manhattan marketdipped 5 percent last year. Fall-ing oil prices led sales inDubai to tumble 25 percent.

The main culprit appears tobe a volatile stock market. TheStandard & Poor’s 500 stockindex plummeted until mid-Feb-ruary, only to undergo a jaggedrecovery such that the networth of millionaires and bil-lionaires has been in near con-stant flux, leaving luxury buy-ers wary about spending lav-ishly on housing.

— AP

94,000

LI BUSINESS

James McPeak Jr., owner of McPeak’s Assisted Living in Patchogue, stands in the 51-bed facility’smain room with residents. His parents, both registered nurses, founded the business in 1956.

STEV

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Family-run assisted living home has seen market change

Number of jobsat Long Island barsand food-service

businesses in March,up 7,100 from March

2015

Source: New York StateDepartment of Labor

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Assisted living amid changes

The Associated Press

Small-business owners say it’stime the presidential candidates pro-vide concrete details on how they’lltackle key issues, including taxes,health care costs and governmentregulations.

“They haven’t been getting tothe meat of issues about howthey’re going to help small busi-nesses,” says Craig Bloem ofFreeLogoServices.com, a Boston-based website that lets companiesdesign logos.

In a Wells Fargo survey of 600business owners released thismonth, three-quarters echoedBloem’s sentiments.

Hillary Clinton and DonaldTrump have talked about cuttingtaxes, including the personal ratesthat sole proprietors pay. Trumppromises to cut the tax rate for com-panies big and small to 15 percent.Clinton vows to provide “targetedtax relief” to small business. BernieSanders proposes raising taxes onwealthier people and on large corpo-rations.

The candidates have also madegeneral promises on other issuesthat affect small businesses. Trump,for example, says he’d ask Congressto repeal the health care law that re-quires companies with at least 50workers to offer health insurance.Clinton says she’d build on the law to

slow health care costs.When asked for specifics,

Trump’s campaign referred a re-porter to his website; the Clintonand Sanders campaigns did not re-spond.

Marc Meredith, professor of po-litical science at the University ofPennsylvania, noted that smallbusiness is not necessarily a solidvoting bloc. And a Bank of Amer-ica survey found that few ownersvote solely on small-business is-sues: 15 percent said they votefrom the perspective of a busi-ness owner, 34 percent from a per-sonal perspective, and 51 percentsaid both business and personalperspectives determine their vote.

LI BUSINESS

relationships with qualified refer-ral sources such as hospital dis-charge planners and geriatric man-agers.

“Host regular events to showoff your food. Let potential refer-ral sources and families in thecommunity see a well-trained, pro-fessional staff. Offer some type ofirresistible entertainment, educa-tion or information that can’t befound elsewhere,” she adds.

Another way for McPeak’s andother small assisted living facili-ties to shine is to team up with in-

dustry providers, says RachelDoyle, founder and CEO of Glam-ourGals Foundation in Commack.She works with senior homes onLong Island, organizing volun-teers to provide companionshipand complimentary beautymakeovers to residents.

“Bring in elder care attorneys. . . physicians and specialiststhat do house calls. This in-creases the quality of life for theresidents. Families will helpspread the word about your busi-ness,” adds Greg Solometo, CEOof Alliance Homecare in Manhat-tan.

When the minimum wage in-creases, it will be challenging, butalso create opportunities. “Betterwages for direct care staff may verywell increase thepool of better quali-fied candidates,” FitzPatrick says.

As for regulatory and legisla-tive opportunities, get help fromthe state chapter of Argentum,the national senior living trade as-sociation, FitzPatrick says. “Inde-pendent assisted living ownersshould form a coalition and con-tribute to the hiring of a consul-tant who could monitor regula-tions and shepherd them throughchanges,” she says.

CARE from A37

McPeak’s Assisted Living in Patchogue, founded in 1956 in a 1924 mansion, has seen some changes in the market.

MCP

EAK’S

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