Baby Boomers to invade Southwest Florida!

Bracing for the boom'Me' generation's golden years to have big effect on 'us'.
By Betsy Clayton

WHAT'S A BABY BOOMER?Born 1946-1964 • First boomer turns 60 today on New Year's Day • Nicknamed the "Me" generation • Have been hippies and yuppies. Now they're dubbed "abbies": aging baby boomersDid you know?• The word "workaholic" was coined to describe the boomers.• Boomers are enormous in numbers (76 million). They're competitive by nature. The boomers got productivity in the United States to the forefront of the world community.
Pam Uglietta, 53• Occupation: former special education teacher; now part-time employee at nonprofit program for migrant workers' children • Where from: Oklahoma native, lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Italy • Residence now: Mediterra, North Naples • Hobbies, interests: Travel, visiting adult children, golf, tennis, pets • What's on her mind: "When i came here, I was struck with 'What do I do now?' I can play tennis and golf, but I needed something worthwhile in my life, something beyond the athletic need and more of an intellectual challenge."
One baby boomer's perspectiveIt’s not just business, organizations and government thinking about the coming wave of boomers. Some Southwest Florida residents are positioning themselves to go with boomer trends.Amelia Gomez (pict. above) was watching a real estate commercial from northwest Arkansas one night — the kind the Natural State uses to lure retiring boomers to the Ozarks — when she decided to check it out. The Cape Coral 45-year-old flew there and snagged good deals. She paid $17,900 for a 100-by-125-foot lot and $27,000 for a 1-acre lot. When she mentioned how she loved real estate as a hobby, the sales staff mentioned they were looking to expand, particularly since Gomez is bilingual and many of their boomer buyers speak Spanish. Now Gomez, who owns and directs a counseling agency that works with the criminal justice system, is pursuing her real estate license in Arkansas via online courses. She plans to commute there on weekends.When the boomer reaches retirement age, she’ll be set financially and also have the lifestyle she wants.“It’s a good combination,” said Gomez. “I’m getting older. I’ll have a nice, pristine place to go in summer months.” Forget waiting until 65 to have the ideal lifestyle — part time in the cool climate, part time in the tropics. Like many boomers, she figures she can get what she wants now.“I’m not waiting,” she said. “If you wait, you’re behind the ball.”— Betsy Clayton
Some thoughts on why people who weren't born between 1946 and 1964 should tune in to the wave of 76 million boomers who will retire across the country and Southwest Florida in the coming decades:"It's going to take leaders who have vision because they'll have to step out and do more for the coming years — even more so than what they've been doing for normal growth."— Teri Hansen, Fort Myers native and marketing company owner"Community leaders need to see who is moving there and what their interests are and figure out how to continue to attract these people. You can't do anything about hurricanes, but you can focus on the amenities you have."— Gene Warren, president of Thomas, Warren & Associates of Phoenix— Compiled by Betsy Clayton

Southwest Florida's older population potentially could double as aging baby boomers begin to retire.Today marks the 60th birthday for the first of the generation that was born in the prosperous post-World War II years and went on to become hippies and then yuppies.For the next 25 years, boomers will come to Lee County, already growing by 25,000 people a year.
When they do, they will change the face of Southwest Florida.Conservative estimates show that 54,000 people ages 65 to 69 will live in Lee County by 2030. That's an increase of 20,000 for that age group alone.
Altogether, about 4 million baby boomers are expected to pull up stakes and move to the Sunshine State when they retire. That's double the percentage of their parents' generation.Retiring boomers will clog Southwest Florida's roads, tax its health-care services, continue to drive up home prices and force employers to simultaneously grapple with growth and workforce shortages.More than half of employers surveyed are not prepared for the boomer brain drain.
But the flood of boomers also will create new business niches, build an armada of community volunteers, energize college classrooms and bring liveliness to areas such as the arts and culture scene, whose leaders have started tailoring programs to a generation younger than their traditional audience.
Will Southwest Florida grow even faster than predicted as boomers arrive? No one knows for sure. Is the region bracing for the boom? Ask 10 people, get 10 different answers."Florida is ahead of things. They're looking at changes already — it's already happening — where other communities are saying, 'It's going to happen,'" said Cam Marston, a North Carolina-based work-force dynamics consultant, speaker and author.
Some local leaders agree.They point to evidence around the region already — housing developments that cater to the crowd born between 1946 and 1964, for example. And early-retiree boomer presence in organizations such as the United Way, where boomers are fundraising and volunteering.
"We can readily see their beneficial influence upon our economy, the design of master-planned communities and even into the civic fabric of our community," said Jerry Starkey, president and chief executive officer of Bonita Springs-based WCI Communities Inc., which sells luxury homes in gated communities."You would be hard-pressed to identify another location anywhere in the United States in which the baby boom population is playing such a pervasive role," said Starkey, who started noting boomers' impact in the 1990s.
WHAT THEY WANT
Some well-heeled boomers are already part of Lee County's growing newcomer population. These are the men and women who were business travelers, luxury vacationers and eco-tourists. They moved around for jobs and quality-of-life experiences.They became second-home owners here.
Southwest Florida has what aging boomers want — health-care services, a bustling airport, colleges and a university, malls and ritzy retail shops, outdoor recreation and upscale housing in communities with fitness centers, nature trails, movie theaters and concierge-like services.It's no wonder a boom is expected here.
Past generations saw 10 percent of retirees relocate, but 20 percent of boomers are expected to. Typically, one in four retirees moves to Florida for its climate and lack of state income tax.Midwesterner Mike Rhodes is only 46 and he's plotting his arrival here."My wife is ready to retire," said Rhodes, of Muncie, Ind., who is job hunting and plans to move to Southwest Florida with wife Sharon. "She's ready to go somewhere and relax."
Rhodes is much like others who plan to move here in coming years, according to results from The News-Press' unscientific online survey of nearly 400 baby boomers across the country.They are coming not just for the sunshine but for recreation and leisure opportunities, and they're not waiting until they're 65. Ninety-two percent of respondents plan to work part time, and 65 percent will live here full time.
Boomers who relocate and retire to Lee County will fit in.A quarter of Lee County's population is composed of boomers already, and another quarter is seniors."The rest of the nation won't achieve our current demographics until 2030," said Jim Nathan, president of Lee Memorial Health System.
"When the baby boomer generation bursts into the senior market, there are going to be demographic and phenomenal issues, and I'm trying to figure out how to get ahead of that (as a community)," he said. "We're the laboratory for the rest of the country for senior care."
EFFECT ON EVERYONE
Demographic changes in a region affect everyone, said Aysegul Timur, an economics professor at International College in Naples."If we know a certain age group is coming, then businesses, construction and planning for transportation and everything else can happen," she said.
Economists such as Timur and some developers, health-care providers, business leaders and others are concerned about the work force.Arriving boomers will create a greater demand for jobs such as pool cleaners, lawn-care workers, dry cleaners and waiters that won't pay wages that keep up with housing prices.Southwest Florida hospitals struggle to recruit for and fill nursing positions — some of which pay $30 an hour — because the median price of an existing home sold in Lee County in November rose 49 percent from the same time last year to $295,400.
"The boomers who are coming probably can afford to come, but what about the workers?" said Doug Luckett, chief operating officer at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital.Many issues the community will face as boomers arrive are already in the forefront because of general population growth. The county grew from nearly 383,000 people in 1995 to about 547,000 last year.
The issues are not about boomers arriving here, they're about more warm bodies — people of all ages — moving here, said Wayne Daltry, Lee County's Smart Growth director.Growth hot buttons include work-force housing, transportation and issues such as having enough drinking water, sewage service and plenty of police officers, firefighters and health-care workers.
NEVER-ENDING SEASON?
Add boomers to the mix and what will happen, some residents wonder."What is the plan to make it so it's not like season year-round?" said Teri Hansen, 43, a Lee County native.
County officials and community leaders don't have definitive answers but are in constant discussions about coping with growth.Even beyond growth issues, though, are boomer-specific topics, said Janet Watermeier, a Fort Myers-based real estate consultant.
"Think of better street signs in larger print" for aging boomers' eyes, said Watermeier, who is vice chairwoman of the Florida Transportation Commission, a nine-member body that advises the governor and lawmakers on transportation policy issues."I'm not sure Lee County is quite there yet."The road system is taxed and new roads can't be built fast enough. Interstate 75 will be widened from four to six lanes, and more toll roads and flyovers are planned to bypass clogged intersections.
Many changes will have to be made for growth and because of boomers' sheer numbers, said Lee County Commissioner Bob Janes. Examples include long-term care programs, mental health services and other social services."My concern is that boomers have ubi est mei. Where is mine? Everyone feels a little entitled to everything or something, and they expect it from the government," he said.
"How will we afford to provide all that? ... Ultimately, there will become such a human cry, the government will have to take care of their human services just because there are so many boomers."
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Signs already abound in Southwest Florida that show boomers' influence.Fort Myers hosted the nation's first baby boomers beauty pageant this fall with 25 finalists from around the country.Lee and Collier counties landed the job of hosting 3,000 competitors in the Florida Senior Games State Championship, an event for the 50-plus crowd during two weekends next December.
Business leaders from the Chamber of Southwest Florida featured a forum in the fall about how relocating boomers may affect the region. "Boomers are really different than seniors of today," said forum speaker Carole Green, secretary of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.The Lee County Library System's staff is getting ready, too. An autumn training day featured speakers about offering services to aging baby boomers, who are a much more Internet-savvy generation than today's seniors. One speaker's point: Don't just search for information; help boomers find what they want themselves on the Web.
Developers are clued in. Upscale gated communities such as those built by WCI, whose average home-sale price is $600,000, have created concierge-style services. For example, boomers won't have to merge into traffic on U.S. 41 to go to the dry cleaner. Instead, they can have a WCI employee come to their doorstep to pick up and deliver the clothing.Charitable groups such as United Way have moved fundraising and volunteer drives into those kinds of communities to tap into boomers who work at home or who have retired.It's like writing on the wall, experts said. The boomers are coming; the question just remains how many exactly will actually show up, adding their signature oomph to Southwest Florida's rapid growth.
"They want to follow some goal or dream they have," said Gene Warren, a Phoenix-based economist who has done work in Florida. He studies the costs and benefits of retirees and advises states and communities how to attract and retain them."Right now is when they're starting to make decisions," he said.