South Fork Meets North Fork In Retirement Community

Harvey Feinstein, president emeritus of the Southampton Rose Society, served delicate cookies and iced tea to his guests on the deck of his cottage, which features gorgeous gardens, a rolling lawn, and an expansive view of Peconic Bay. He refused any help, although he is in his 80s, and offered up anecdotes about his life here over the past 14 years.

“Here” is Peconic Landing, a capacious and award-winning retirement community on the North Fork, and Mr. Feinstein was its first resident, moving in when there was “nothing but lampposts and mud tracks,” he said. “It took a huge leap of faith.”

It can take a huge leap of faith for anyone to give up their home and move into what might be construed as a place where old folks go to die. But according to the residents of Peconic Landing, many of whom are former South Fork residents, this is simply the jumping-off place for another chapter of life.

Frederick Cammann, 87, a former Ocean Road, Bridgehampton, resident, moved to Peconic Landing in December. “And I wish I had done this sooner,” he said. “But you don’t know about the kind of freedom you’ll gain until you actually do it.”

His reason for joining the community at Peconic Landing was to give his two sons peace of mind. His wife, Nora, died two years ago, and he was on his own. “I figured if I was going to fall down, I better be here,” he said.

“It’s a strong transition, moving from your home into an entirely different environment,” he said. “Moves, when we were younger, were job-related, or because we wanted to get out of the city with our young families, or whatever.”

“So it can be a little scary for some, he continued. "I’m relatively healthy, and there are people here younger than me with ailments, which felt a little strange at the beginning. And I wasn’t used to being around so many people.

"But the people here—both staff and residents—are incredibly kind and helpful. Everyone who works here and every resident is enormously positive," he continued. "What they do jointly is they work with new arrivals, and do everything they can to assimilate everyone.

“The facilities don’t mean anything,” he added. “It’s about connection.”

The facilities are impressive nonetheless. Located on 144 waterfront acres in Greenport, Peconic Landing’s centerpiece is a 40,000-square-foot community center, which serves its almost 400 residents. The grand foyer has a stone fireplace, and panoramic windows provide views of Long Island Sound.

Other features include an auditorium, library, five dining rooms, café, lounges, art studio, solarium-style pool, fitness center, beauty and barber shops, bank, market and card room. The grounds include walking trails, an interactive sculpture garden with pieces by well-known artists, water features, gardens and a flock of guinea hens.

Residents walk the property, some with the aid of canes or walkers, some with their dogs, while others whiz around in golf carts.

“This isn’t a prison,” Mr. Feinstein said. “I spend my winters in Hawaii.”

Some residents have cars and head out to Greenport or Sag Harbor and beyond for dinner with friends and family, or to attend cultural events. For those who don’t want to drive, there is a shuttle to town and the nearby hospital for appointments.

“There are lot of misconceptions about Peconic Landing out there,” offered Laurelle Cassone, director of sales and marketing. “Some think it’s a nursing home, or that you have to be super-rich to live here.

"Neither one of those are true," she maintained. "All of our programming and services are created to keep you active and engaged and independent as long as possible. So this is a place that you move to when you want to age well.”

Residences start in the $260,000 range and head up to about $1 million, in an equity-based system similar to a building co-op. The monthly maintenance fee ranges from around $3,500 to about $6,500, but includes just about everything, including all stages of care.

“In a 55-plus community, once you need special care, you would have to leave,” said Ms. Cassone. “Here we have assisted living, skilled nursing, and short-term rehab. Couples can stay together in their own home here, even if they need different forms of care.”

Peconic Landing offers care for all types of residents, as long as they are “62 years and better,” quips the website, peconiclanding.com. A $44 million expansion which opened in April—Harbor South—has an additional 46 new apartments, 16 of them offering assisted living with "memory support."

What does that mean?

Ms. Cassone thought carefully before speaking. “All your life, you wake up in the morning and have purpose, and if you don’t achieve it you feel unfulfilled. So many of our residents are fiercely independent and accomplished, but now are dealing with a diagnosis of some kind of cognitive impairment.

"With that, it’s a struggle to find a purpose; there are things you can’t do for yourself anymore. When someone moves in Harbor South, we create a biography, a life story, so that when they wake up today, their purpose is waiting for them."

She continued: "Say you have a man whose passion and love was cars. Every Sunday he would go out and wash his muscle car. So you get a car here, and a bucket of water, and he is in his glory. He finishes cleaning the car, he feels complete, fulfilled, and at peace. Even if he has to do it again an hour later, it gives him a sense of accomplishment. That’s what we offer.”

Most residents need much less care than that. When he first moved in, Mr. Feinstein noticed an empty outdoor space, a kind of courtyard, and asked the powers that be if he could design a rose garden there. Today, the 45 rose bushes in the garden bloom through November, and that space is now the venue for a yearly Rose Tea and “Dansant,” featuring a three-piece orchestra, cocktails, and a bottle of champagne for the attendee with the most beautiful hat.

“I lived in Southampton for 40 years,” Mr. Feinstein said. “I was having trouble getting up and down the stairs in my two-story home, and I didn’t want the family to have to worry about ‘Uncle Harvey,’” he recalled. “People are reticent when they move in sometimes. But there are a million activities. You get to pick and choose.”

Keven Bridge, a former resident of Hampton Bays and Noyac, is, at 71, one of the youngest residents in several ways. She moved to the campus in September 2015, she said, “but I’m so busy, and I know so many people, I feel like I’ve been here a long time.”

Ms. Bridge searched for a place to live in different states, including Maine, where she has family, and Williamsburg Landing in Virginia, before she settled on Peconic Landing.

“It wasn’t that I couldn’t live on my own,” she said. “It was that it was time to free myself from doing all that one does. I wasn’t running the house, the house was running me.”

Her husband, John Bridge, who had been a professor at Southampton College, died in 1997, “so I had been on my own for a long while. I wanted time for myself.”

Ms. Bridge maintains a second-floor apartment with a balcony at the Landing, and occupies herself with the opera, ballet, poetry classes, swimming, yoga, and more.

Many of the courses and workshops are run by the residents. Ms. Bridge ticked off recent classes—“Female spies of World War II, a study of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’ I did a women’s group, that was terrific,” she said.

“It’s been really lovely,” she continued. “The staff and residents are friendly without being pushy. There’s a lot of respect for people’s privacy. It’s so flexible, we can meet in the dining room or have dinner alone. But it’s sort of a tradition to invite people to your place for dinner,” she said with a laugh. “So even if you want to isolate, your friends won’t let you!”According to Robert J. Syron, the CEO and president of Peconic Landing, a little more than 20 percent of the residents formerly lived in the Hamptons, and most of the others are from Long Island and New York City.

“When new residents come to the North Fork, they find the South Fork they used to have,” Mr. Syron said. "This is the South Fork of 30 years ago—there are the little fishing villages, the farm stands, the vineyards. So that’s the draw.

"But then they see the cultural community we’ve created," he continued, "wellness, arts, fine dining, 36 clubs and committees, upscale living arrangements with folks like themselves.

"It’s a really wonderful thing," Mr. Syron said. "I hear the same thing over and over again: 'I wish I had known to do this sooner.'”

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