Aurora on France is easy to find. It’s conveniently located near Crosstown and France Avenue in Edina and sits a stone’s throw from Southdale Center. It also has a skyway that attaches it to Fairview Southdale Hospital.
Despite its proximity to a well-known medical center, however, this year-old community is no nursing home. (Few retirement communities are these days.)
Aurora on France offers independent living, assisted living and memory care, plus enhanced care (24-hour health-care services in a homelike setting for long or short stays) as well as a Transitional Care Unit (known as a TCU), geared toward recently discharged patients who need short-term rehabilitation and/or skilled-nursing care.
Dining room with windows at the Aurora on France retirement communityAnother option is Stay By the Day care.
This three-day-minimum housing option — offered in the assisted living and memory care apartments at the community — is geared toward (a) folks who may be discharged from transitional care, but who aren’t ready to go home; (b) people who are interested checking out the community without a full commitment; or (c) caregivers who are looking for respite care for their loved ones.
Stay By the Day apartments are fully furnished. Each one includes a kitchen, private bathroom with a shower, linens, individual climate controls, utilities, cable, wireless Internet and an emergency call pendant. Daily rent includes three meals per day, housekeeping, laundry, access to personal care staff and nursing. It also includes full access to all building amenities and programs happening in the community.
A nurse completes a complimentary assessment prior to each Stay By the Day visit to determine personal care needs and preferences.
“Patients discharged from Transitional Care Units may not be ready to go home, so coming to the Stay By the Day suites lets them recuperate even more — in a safe, familiar place,” said Erin Hilligan, Ebenezer’s corporate director of skilled services. “Families love that there’s a place for them to prepare to go home. It’s a cornerstone of care within the Ebenezer system that makes their quality of care and life great.”
Activity lounge at Aurora on FranceAmenities
- Spacious, bright, individually climate controlled apartments with full kitchens and washers/dryers
- Weekly housekeeping and one load of laundry a week
- Fitness room, movie theater, meditation room, reading nook and fireplace lounge
- Access to chef-prepared meals, served restaurant style
- Scheduled group transportation, enriching activities and wellness programs
- Community room, bistro and two private dining rooms for parties and events
- Two guest suites
- Underground heated parking and on-site storage units
- Outdoor patio with two fireplaces
- Beauty/barber shop
- Concierge services
- Secure skyway access to Fairview Southdale Hospital
- Pet friendly and smoke free.
Aurora on France
Where: 6500 France Ave. S., Edina
Opening date: December 2016
Ages welcome: 55 and older
Number of units: 88 senior living apartments (studios, 1 and 2 bedrooms), a memory care neighborhood with 33 apartments (studios and semi-private suites) and eight care suites (studios and semi-private). There’s also a 54-room Transitional Care Unit, providing short-term therapy and medical care for individuals after hospital stays.
Cost range: Rent ranges from $3,350 to $5,750 a month and includes utilities, wireless Internet, cable, weekly housekeeping along and emergency pendants and pulls to access personal-care staff 24 hours a day.
Memory care rent ranges from $6,250 to $8,875 a month and includes medication management/administration, personal care, three meals a day, enrichment programming and other activities.
Property owner: Aurora Investments is the property owner with operations handled by Minneapolis-based Ebenezer Management Services in conjunction with Volunteers of America.
Other facilities in Minnesota: Aurora on France is one of Ebenezer’s four communities offering Transitional Care Unit services. Martin Luther Care Center in Bloomington, Ridges Care Center in Burnsville and Meadows on Fairview in Wyoming, Minn., also offer the option.
Info: 952-848-8888 or auroraonfrance.com
Do you know of a new or interesting senior housing facility in the Twin Cities that might make a good Housing Spotlight? Write Minnesota Good Age editor Sarah Jackson at [email protected] with the subject line HOUSING SPOTLIGHT.