A Focus on Core Business Makes this Partnership a Perfect Fit.

Horizon House
Seattle, WA

Horizon House and Crothall team provide services based on each organization’s strengths, and lower residential unit turn times from one week to two days. This allowed for simultaneous advantages of moving new residents in units faster and increasing revenues.

Meet Horizon House

Horizon House is a private, non-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community located in Seattle, WA. Designed to provide a spectrum of services and care for residents, from complete individualized living to a Supported Living environment, Horizon House is clearly the leader among today’s CCRCs.

When the Chief Facility Engineer decided to pursue his own business, the administrators at Horizon House saw an opportunity to review their current building services and housekeeping programs to ensure that they were as cutting-edge as other aspects of their business approach. What they discovered was the need for a partner whose core business was building services and housekeeping, and who would consistently provide the highest level of expertise. Finding such a partner would allow the administration to focus on what they do best, providing their residents with the premier Supported Living environment in the country.

According to Peter Marschalk, Operations Administrator for Horizon House since 2006, “It was important that we find a partner whose culture matched ours. We wanted an organization dedicated to providing superior service that would unequivocally meet the expectations of our very discerning residents. We enthusiastically chose Crothall to be that partner.”

Crothall – A Perfect Fit for the CCRC Supported Living Model

After spending two days at Horizon House conducting a comprehensive operational and functional survey of plant operations and housekeeping services, Crothall put together a 9-point program (see box) specifically designed to address the unique needs of the facility. “It was obvious from the beginning that Crothall’s commitment to providing excellent service, while naturally encapsulating it within a hospitality model, would be the key to our success,” says Peter Guariglia, Regional Vice President of Crothall Facilities Management. “Our goal was to become a valuable member of the Horizon House team quickly, with minimal disruption to the current staff or the residents.”

The First Opportunity

One of the things Crothall noticed right away was the amount of time it took to get a Supported Living apartment ready for occupation between the departure of one resident and the next resident moving in. At the beginning of the Horizon House/Crothall partnership, it took between five to seven days to turn a room around. Each day a room stood empty was lost revenue for Horizon House.

Preparing an apartment for a new resident includes cleaning every square inch of the unit, evaluating the mechanical functionality of all components within the unit, as well as repairing anything found to be deficient. Spackling and painting are also part of the process, if necessary.

After careful analysis, Crothall was able to compress the time necessary to turn an apartment around to two days without negatively impacting resident satisfaction. This early “win” saves Horizon House approximately $500 per turnaround, while also providing tangible proof of Crothall’s commitment to quality and fiscal responsibility.

“The improvement in apartment turn time has a huge impact on our bottom line. Obviously, we want each and every apartment filled and our residents to be absolutely satisfied with its condition on the day that they move in and every day thereafter,” says Peter Marschalk. “Crothall is as committed to this goal as we are.”

An Exciting Future

As if housing 400 of the most discerning retirees in the greater Seattle region, while simultaneously pioneering the Supported Living model of care isn’t enough, Horizon House is in the midst of an exciting expansion project. A new, nineteen-story tower with one hundred new apartments is currently under construction.

Scheduled to open in August of 2007, the new tower boasts amenities that include a swimming pool, an expanded Exercise/Wellness floor, a larger library, new lounge gardens, as well as formal, casual, and take-out dining venues.

To take a virtual tour of the existing Horizon House facility and watch the construction of the new tower as it happens, log on to www.horizonhouse.org. We’ll also keep you up-to-date on the construction and the opening of the new tower at our website, www.crothall.com. Stay tuned!