Pat and George Ritzinger moved five years ago to a community that few would initially consider a retirement mecca: a former shopping center site in Wayzata, Minnesota.
They had spent the previous 15 years living in a town house development in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area yet found the atmosphere chilly.
“The neighbors were unfriendly,” George Ritzinger, 85, said. “It was a struggle to organize social gatherings. Watching garage doors open was the main excitement.”
In their current community, Folkestone, they can walk to shopping and other amenities and engage in numerous activities. A bonus: They are close to family.There is little denying that a vast amount of retail space is emptying during the coronavirus pandemic — 25,000 stores may close by the end of this year — all while the over-65 population is increasing by about 10,000 a day.
So even though arena-like malls and strip shopping centers might never see another Sears, J.C. Penney or Lord & Taylor store, some are being transformed into something more interesting: comprehensive upscale retirement complexes.
Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, the Ritzingers moved to the Twin Cities in 1974 for his job as a sales executive for DuPont. After living unhappily in a 16-unit town house complex in nearby Eden Prairie, they decided to move; George Ritzinger created a spreadsheet to keep track of places that had the features they desired.
Besides being close to shopping, dining and recreation, the couple can hop on a Folkestone bus that takes them around town. And George Ritzinger can keep up with his woodworking hobby in the community’s wood shop.To accommodate residents during the unforgiving Minnesota winters, skyways connect the three senior buildings in the expanding development.
“Wayzata is a delightful place,” Pat Ritzinger, 84, said. “We can look out on a lake, and our sons and grandsons are nearby.”
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