People 55 and older who attended the grand opening celebration of the Starling at Nocatee Independent Living community Nov. 19 were treated as if they were on a cruise. Issued “passports” on arrival, they got to visit “ports of call’ throughout the community, tasting treats, enjoying musical entertainment and sipping tropical drinks, all while collecting passport stamps along the way for a chance to win a Caribbean cruise.
“Our community here is very much like being on a cruise ship,” said Kerri Dufour, executive director.
Residents began moving into the rental community, which does not have buy-in-fees, in September. It offers spacious apartments, restaurant style dining at multiple venues, a spa and salon, fitness center, yoga lawn, massage room, resort-style heated saltwater pool and group exercise classes, as well as a calendar of social activities and trips and an art studio, library, game room and multiple lounges.
Additional outdoor amenities include a fire pit, resident gardening area, putting green, bocce ball, pickleball court, dog park and landscaped courtyards.
It is adjacent to the Assisted Living and Memory Care units, which were phase 1 of the Starling at Nocatee.
Dufour said the new Independent Living community has also been compared to a luxury resort. “It’s a cruise ship on dry land,” she said.
