S.F.’s next luxury housing project is charging $27,000 a month. It’s directed at senior citizens – San Francisco Chronicle

Two national developers, Related and Atria Senior Living, have joined together to form Coterie, a senior housing development company whose first two offerings will be in San Francisco and New York. In San Francisco the company is building Coterie Cathedral Hill, a 208-unit apartment complex at 1001 Van Ness Ave., set to open in March 2022. A second development, in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, is slated to open late next year.

Residents at the 14-story Van Ness Avenue building, on the site of the former KRON-4 studio, will get three meals a day prepared by a team of Michelin-rated chefs. There will be a formal dining room, a more casual spot, a cafe and a bar with a full liquor license. Or if residents prefer to eat in their unit, room service is available.

There will be a Mercedes Sprinter van to take groups of guests to exhibits at SFMOMA or a play at the American Conservatory Theater, or chauffeured town cars available to whisk residents downtown or to the Palace of Fine Arts. The building will include on-site private health care facilities with “treatment and diagnostic capabilities,” fitness centers curated by Mayo Clinic, a movie theater, tailored nutrition and diet plans, yoga studios, heated pools, rooftop gardens, salons and classes.

Atria CEO John Moore said the model for Coterie was inspired by the success of a senior housing development it owns on West 86th Street in Manhattan, which has a long waiting list and commands rents over $20,000. Senior housing tends to be in suburban settings in warm weather cities, and while that appeals to many retirees, it is not for everyone, he said.

“There are sophisticated urban seniors who would prefer to stay in their hometowns,” he said. “And there are not a lot of options if their hometowns happen to be the big 24-hour cities like San Francisco, Manhattan or Los Angeles.”

The model will also appeal to older Boomers who raised their kids in the suburbs, moved into urban centers as empty nesters 15 or 20 years ago, and are now entering their mid- or late 70s.

“Everything you do at 50, you can do at 60 and even at 70,” Moore said. “But at some point, daily living might be easier or better if you don’t have to cook for yourself, or it might be easier or better if you can get some help with bathing or dressing or transportation.”

Bill Witte, who heads up Related California, said the concept is to roll a lot of services into the rent that well-to-do people are used to paying for separately: health and wellness, daily housekeeping, food preparation, transportation, technology. The building is next door to the California Pacific Medical Center, and Coterie staff will act as a liaison between residents’ doctors and family members, coordinating medical appointments and care.

“It’s a soup-to-nuts approach where tenants gradually use more services as they desire and need them,” Witte said. “We think it’s a very good value.”

One of the first tenants to sign a lease in the building was Janet Cluff, who for 45 years has lived in a large house on Twin Peaks. About five years ago, she started looking at senior housing options, but the few San Francisco buildings that appealed to her had long waiting lists. Cluff, 80, said she learned about Coterie from a friend who, like her, was on the waiting list at the San Francisco Towers, which is located on Pine Street.

“The Towers is lovely, but you have to wait for someone to die to get in,” she said.

She wanted to be near the Opera and Symphony, which are just up Van Ness a few blocks. She wanted a proper kitchen — not a microwave and mini fridge as a lot of the senior communities offered. Her house in Twin Peaks has a “swim spa,” so she wanted a pool so she could continue to swim. Her apartment looks out at Van Ness and City Hall, and she can look up at Twin Peaks and her current house.

The Coterie was brand-new, so she and her friend both had plenty of choices, and each picked units on the top floor. Her friend’s apartment is big enough for his grand piano.

“Coming from a big house with great views, my qualifications were quite high,” she said. “It’s twice as expensive as the Towers, but you are getting a lot for your money.”

The Baby Boom generation, born 1946 to 1964, currently totals 78.2 million people, and the oldest wave is just now beginning to fill senior living communities.

Ken Rosen, who heads up the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley, said luxury urban senior housing is an underserved market. When he was looking for senior communities for his parents in Florida, he found that even older complexes with little in the way of amenities or services were charging $8,000 a month.

“The demographic is incredible,” he said. “There are a lot of Baby Boomers who want to live in an urban environment, not on a pretty golf course.”

He said Coterie would likely compete more with condo projects like the Four Seasons or St. Regis rather than a typical senior community. “The question is whether you would rather rent or own,” he said. “The reason you pay so much for it is the services, and how good they are at the services will determine whether they succeed.”

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen