Venice senior living campus plays hotel role during Milton

Hurricane Milton, despite its destruction, felt a bit like a party to anyone not watching the news at The Goldton, a senior living community in Venice. In fact, the facility debuted a special mixed drink called the Milton at its sports bar during the storm. 

More than 40 people came to The Goldton seeking shelter, including family members of those who live there, staff and prospective residents, according to Executive Director Laura Blakeman.

Among those visiting was President and CEO of Atlas Senior Living Scott Goldberg. “I wanted to be there to support our people,” says Goldberg, whose company owns nearly 40 senior living communities in the southeastern United States, including The Goldton.

Goldberg flew to Sarasota from Alabama Oct. 8 for the storm, which made landfall Oct. 9.

Six other Atlas communities were in the path of the hurricane, he says, as far north as Tampa and as far east as the Orlando submarket. “So we had exposure in our portfolio," Goldberg says. "It felt like I needed to come in and offer an extra layer of support for the business.”

At each of its potentially affected communities, Atlas Senior Living provided corporate staff to supplement the teams on-site.

In Venice, “I started getting phone calls Monday night from loved ones, family members,” Blakeman says, with people asking whether The Goldton could provide shelter since it is in Zone D, which was not ordered to evacuate.

Constructed in 2023, the building that houses more than 160 residents was established to withstand the hurricane. It is also on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice power grid and has a generator in the event of an outage.

Because of the building’s strength, generator and proximity to the hospital, says Blakeman: “I was very comfortable sheltering people. I was not going to turn anybody down.”

Dozens of people showed up, some with birds, cats and dogs, and all were welcome. 

When Goldberg arrived, he says the line made it look like a hotel concierge.

“I thought … we’ve gone from senior housing to the hospitality-hotel business,” he quips.

Critical communication

To keep residents and employees updated on storm preparation, Blakeman held twice daily staff meetings and twice daily resident meetings. Resident meetings were publicized with flyers until the copier didn’t work because the power was out, she says, and by then, residents were used to the meeting times so they showed up and spread the message by word of mouth.

Having a “proactive cadence of communication” was a “big part of the recipe for making everything seem a little bit easier," Goldberg says. “We wanted to make sure we were overly communicating.” 

When the hurricane arrived The Goldton was hosting a party with trivia, shuffleboard, food, drinks, billiards and other happenings around its sports bar area, about 15 miles from where the storm made landfall near Siesta Key.

“You couldn't feel and you couldn't hear” the hurricane outside, Goldberg says. “If you weren't paying attention outside and you weren't looking over your shoulder at one of the TVs for the news, it felt like there was just an event there. It felt great. And you know, that doesn't just happen.”

Says Goldberg: “It comes with time, it comes with trust, it comes with getting your procedures right. Besides some things here or there that you can't always expect to go right and serving a large, fragile population, 95% of it felt like just a fun event inside….People were not burdened with anxiety or stress due to the hurricane. They weren't just being protected; they were thriving.”

Residents had relatives calling from out-of-state to check on them, and Blakeman says she was texting pictures of people to their family members to let them know everything was OK. 

“Having a full building … just filled my heart,” Blakeman says. “It was fun.”

Plan for success

Goldberg credits the staff, including clinical and culinary personnel, for providing care and food under extraordinary circumstances.

“We've never had that many heads in beds, as we like to say,” Goldberg says. “It all starts with their leader, which is Laura. So I didn't want to make it sound like… it was easy. That's just how it felt, because of all the smart, hard work and the planning team.”

The community has a hurricane plan that is updated every few months, Blakeman says, so everyone knew what to do. When the power was out for a few hours, the staff had battery-powered walkie talkies to stay in touch.

“Scott was such a big help,” she says of the owner’s presence on-site. “I think he kicked me back into my own room at like 1 o'clock in the morning. He did all the [night] watches, … really just making sure everybody was safe.”

In fact, people felt so safe they had to be reminded to leave. 

Goldberg was not among them – he drove back to Alabama Oct. 10. 

People ask him why he went, and he says it goes back to his No. 1 rule. “How can we ask our community managers to go do things that we're not going to do?” he says. “That's rule number one, and we weren't going to violate rule number one.”