Located in Palisades Highlands, Ciela, offers independent living, assisted living and memory care. Residents have meals in this room, which offers beautiful views.
Ciela, described as a modern, resort-style retirement community in the Palisades Highlands, offers independent living, assisted living and memory care.
The facility located at 17310 West Vereda de la Montura click here is giving tours to perspective clients, with plans to open to residents in October.
Before moving in, there is a membership fee of $25,000. If people sign up and are ready to move into rooms in October, they will receive a $10,000 discount.
If the membership is paid to move in November, there will be a $5,000 discount and pay and move in by December there will be a $2,500 discount.
With an early signing there are perks, such as a Samsung 4K Smart TV, a set of Quince European Linen Sheets, $1,000 reimbursement for moving expenses, a year of seasonal wardrobe rotation and cleanout, complimentary happy hour and appetizers for 10-25 guests and a $500 Ciela credit to be used for guest meals, Sunday brunch, sky bar, private training sessions, recovery therachair session, infrared sessions, private Pilates classes.
One person asked if they died that first month or two, would they get that membership fee back, and the answer was no.
An independent living resident is one that needs no extra care and according to the brochure “simply wants to live among like-minded friends in a beautiful/ serene setting.”
Assisted living facilities provide less hands-on care than nursing homes but are designed for people who can still live independently but need some care.
With independent living, rents are paid monthly. A studio apartment starts at $8,395,a month, a one-bedroom at $12,985, and a two bedroom is $18,845. Everything is month-to-month and if you want to add a second person to any of the rooms, it is an additional $1,500.
If you need assisted care in addition to monthly rent, Level 1 is an additional $800 a month, Level 2 is $1,350 and level 3 is $1,950.
There are studio accommodations available at Ciela.
Someone wanted to know the ratio of staff to those in memory care—and presenters said it would depend on the population they were serving and the memory issues.
In 2019, CTN stopped by Atria, a luxury senior facility, that generally houses about 47 seniors at its facility on Sunset, just west of Via de la Paz. Then, there were 38 people living there and there was a 51-member staff that provided around-the-clock coverage during three shifts. .
The inside of the ground floor of the Highlands building has spectacular views of Los Angeles Park and the Santa Monica Mountains. There is a small café, a bistro, that will be open to the public, daily, per the lawsuit that was brought before Ciela opened.
Included in the fee are three gourmet meals a day, housekeeping and laundry services, life alert monitoring, Wi-Fi and basic cable, transportation within a 10-mile radius, security, 24-hour emergency call response, 24-hour concierge service and a “dynamic calendar” of events.
A sample day for a Wednesday in the middle of the month listed 8 a.m. smoothie testing, 9 a.m. intro to Pilates, 10 a.m. current events or a Palisades Village outing, 11 a.m. vitality fitness, 1 p.m. full moon sound bath, 3 p.m. perfect pitch hour, 4 p.m. wine down and 6:30 p.m. theatre movie.
The units are small, but the Ciela presenter said that was by choice, because the emphasis will be for people to be out of rooms in the common areas.
People can bring their own furniture, but closets are also small, which is why one option is wardrobe rotation. Winter clothes will be replaced with summer clothes while the latter is stored.
Every room has a “handicapped shower,” safes, washers/dryers, microwaves and refrigerators.
Those at the presentation luncheon were told the facility is pet friendly–no limit on how many pets you might have as long as they were well behaved and got along.
An audience member asked about evacuation in case of a fire and was told there would be a bus that held 80, and that it would be loaded and driven down Palisades Drive.
Presenters were asked what would happen if that road was closed and they said that the Lachman Lane Fire Lane would provide an alternate route.
The audience was told that the Ciela building is cement and steel and could serve as an evacuation center for the rest of the Highlands.
After the presentation, CTN spoke to LAFD 23 and 69 Captains. One captain said, he would not try to evacuate people from a senior center. More likely those residents would be sheltered in place.
Both Captains emphasized if they are fighting a fire, that would need Lachman Lane for equipment—no outside traffic on it.
Neither LAFD Captain had heard that this Highlands building could be an evacuation site. Both mentioned Palisades High School and the Palisades Rec Center as evacuation sites.
Another person wanted to know if they could bring their car. Another asked if there was parking for visiting relatives. They were told there was plenty of parking.
When the building went through City planning, it showed 82 units (96 residents), which means the City mandated 65 parking spaces and 10 bike spaces, which was based on a formula of 0.2 automobile parking spaces for each guest bed in Alzheimer’s/dementia care housing and 1.0 parking spaces for each guest in assisted living.
In 2018, CTN had contacted Lauren Alba, a Department of City Planning public relations specialist, asking about parking and she responded that there would be 66 spaces, one more than required by law. “Allocation of those spaces would be at the discretion of the operator,” she wrote in an email to CTN.
The hydrotherapy spa and fitness center was not open to visitors when CTN was there in August. There is a tour and free lunch on September 9 at 11:30 a.m., spots are limited and an RSVP is necessary click here.
New residents can either bring their own furniture or they can elect to go with furniture, such as in this one-bedroom apartment.
