DIXON, CA (MPG) - With a huge bulldozer helping to hold the waving banners of the Calson Management and J3C Group, about a hundred contractors, electricians, investors, administration, and family and friends of Jason Reyes, Calson’s Managing Partner, celebrated the official groundbreaking of the new Dixon Senior Living facility at 350 Gateway Drive last week.

There was music and food, and even playhouses for the children"'all exuding the warmth and personal care Reyes has built his reputation on as a creative and collaborative community visionary. A dozen shiny new shovels stuck upward out of a long mound of dirt so that instrumental supporters would all be involved in the ceremonial dig and official ‘naming.’

“We asked all of our closed investors, friends, family and colleagues to name the building,” Reyes said. “We had so many good name choices but ultimately felt that ‘The Farmstead’ was a perfect fit for our new community. Hanna Richardson is our Director of Resident Development at Rockville Terrace Senior Living in Fairfield and she’s from Dixon. Besides coming up with great names, she’s also been a tremendous asset to the team.”

Reyes also thanked the City of Dixon for their support and gave Mayor Bird an opportunity to talk.

“We have an aging community and an aging society. I challenge people to think about your parents and appreciate them,” he said. “They are living wisdom and we thank you for this project.”

“The powers that be in the City of Dixon have been nothing but helpful,” Steven Brown, Reyes’ business partner, mentor and contractor on the project responded. Reyes said that building a better Dixon for the future and for healthier, happier lives is part of the company mission and thanked his parents, wife and aunts who have been for him through acquisition, development, and construction.

“Jason is my only child and to be able to work side-by-side with him every day is one of my greatest pleasures. His passion for the Senior Living industry is evident and inspiring to everyone he meets,” his mother said.

“That I get to work with a loving family everyday, I am more than grateful,” Reyes said, then invited numerous families by name to pick up a shovel. “Everyone: Straight from the heart, I appreciate it.”

The long-needed residential assisted living and memory care facility will house 88 beds and up to 100 residents in a contemporary, 2-story facility looking more like a hotel on Gateway Boulevard.

“This is not a nursing home,” said Sam Thomas, Senior Specialist Architect in a presentation last summer to the Dixon City Planning Commission. “The average age of our residents is 82 and our residents are still somewhat mobile.” There will be a centralized dining facility, social activities, and 24-hour staff on site.

“Growing old doesn’t mean you’re closing the book on life,” Reyes said. “One of our biggest challenges with this generation in their 80s is that they still have a negative stigmatism of what [assisted living] is. We move people in all the time and soon, you can see them relax with a complete transition in four to five weeks.”

Currently, Calson operates seven communities comprising over 640 units of senior living and totaling more than $150 million in market value. In addition to Dixon, they have three other projects actively under construction in Los Gatos, Santa Rosa and San Jose, equating to another 368 units.

Roughly 18 months from now, they will be moving residents into the community. Anyone interested in getting on the interest list for future residents can email [email protected].