Over promises and under delivered. Kept deposit even though never moved in due to medical reasons

I love Franklin Park TPC Parkway. I liked that it had a lot of amenities that I was looking for. I loved the floor plan. The location was kind of number one, too, because it's close to my oldest son. It's about seven miles away from their house, and that was important to me. I like the area for the most part. I liked the fact that it has a garage and storage facilities, at an extra cost of course. That was the only one I noticed that had more amenities like that, because I still drive and wanted to keep my car for as long as I could. It wasn't an old place. It's very well-maintained. It was clean. It just felt right when I was in there. I didn't feel like I was in an old folks home even though it is a 55-plus senior community. I just had a good feeling about it. The lady that showed me around really gave me a good tour. She asked questions, and she stayed with me. I had a meal there. The only problem is that I'm a vegetarian. I know they told me that I could request items. It's like a cafeteria-style thing where you go in and they have certain things of the day, and I could request that they leave the meat off if it was possible. They had alternatives as well. The food was OK. It was fine. It was sustainable. They have all kinds of activities, but I really wasn't interested because I'm not really into activities. One thing I did like (though I don't have a pet now) is that if you have a pet, they have a little park-like thing. It was kind of small, it's big as a yard, and it's like a mini dog park, which I thought was cool. They had places where you could go and walk because I like to do that. They have a beauty salon. They have a doctor onsite. It's a small little clinic, and it's separate from everything. It's not included in your rent, so I thought that was kind of cool. What I really like, too, is they have onsite a 24/7 emergency call system. Even for independent living, they give you one of these First Alert type things that you can use in case you need it. Now they don't do emergency, but if you call it or use it, they will call 911 for you, or make sure you get some sort of medical help, and that was a 24-hour thing that they have somebody on call there. They give an emergency pendant per resident. They also have guest suites available if I have family from out of town that want to spend the night. It's an extra fee, but it's nice to know that it's there. They have a full-sized kitchen with an island in each apartment. They have an activity center where they do movies and stuff like that. I didn't meet that many staff members, just the salesperson that took me around. She was really, really good at being thorough and showing me stuff that I didn't expect. I had a nice soup and a salad without the meat. The food was good. The atmosphere in the dining room was awesome. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. Also, they will repaint your whole place. The labor is no charge, and I would have to pay for the paint, which is not that big a deal. But they would do it for me, so I thought that was kind of cool, especially if I walk into a place or see a place that has horrible paint that I hate. They're very committed to making you want to feel at home.

We visited the Franklin Park TPC Parkway. The staff is very friendly, helpful, and welcoming. We've had the food there, it's good although it could be better. Compared to the other places I've seen, they were just as nice if not nicer than anything else. They have all the amenities, they have a gym and a pool, they have activities planned, and they had everything everybody else had. Some of the other places we've been at weren't as kept up as well as this one. It's located close to a lot of shopping, restaurants, and lots of activity.

We'll be moving into Franklin Park TPC Parkway. It's a very nice and certainly a new area of San Antonio. It's just right at the edge of the hill country. If people want to get out, and if they're able to, they do a little shopping or something like that. There's plenty around there to do. They have a lot of planned trips, now that COVID is hopefully on the way out. The people I met were very nice and very accommodating. We will be in independent living. Even though they've only been opened a couple of years, and went through COVID, and probably had to lay off people, their place was clean. They had activities that we might participate in, but the dining room was still closed, and there was no sampling of food to speak of. The apartments were very nice. We wanted a two-bedroom and it's a tad smaller than some of the others we looked at, but they were clean. We saw an apartment that was getting ready to be turned over to a new person, and they had finished cleaning it, and we could see that it was good thorough cleaning. It's very nice and clean inside, and beautifully decorated. It was decorated in mind that older people are gonna live there. The marketing director took us and showed us to different places. She was very, very nice, and has done as much as she can possibly do to help us with our move. It's just been a very nice experience, and I think a lot of it has to do with the people that work there. There's a swimming pool, exercise classes, games, a theater that they had little performances on, they take you on trips when you can do it, and you're not restricted from doing it, and you get your transportation to grocery stores, and some shopping areas, and medical appointments. They come up with quite a few activities to do, but keeping in mind that the independent part people are coming and going. They also have cottages that aren't apartments inside a building. They have a pretty courtyard, a nice walking area, they allow your pets, and they have a dog park.

Tina is the salesperson at Franklin Park TPC Parkway. She was very thoughtful and answered our questions completely, and she got back to us. If she didn't know the answers completely, she would find out what was going on. She was very attentive to our needs, and she sent us several videos, although other places also sent us videos, so that wasn't really the main deciding point. But it was definitely very helpful when she kept up with us and continued to call us to make sure we were on track. What set them apart from other retirement centers was that they have a medical facility onsite. Tina was very interested in whether or not there could be a rehab type of situation, because in case my mother-in-law needed to get surgery, she could just rehab here. Her room's living area had a larger square footage than in other places that we had looked at. The bedroom isn't anything to write home about, but it's about 14x14, and it's decent. We knew all of this when we looked online at the sizes of the rooms; it was affordable. I'm able to see some residents, and when my mother-in-law first moved in, there were also a couple of residents down the hallway who came by to see her and asked who she was and they talked a little bit. Everybody seemed really friendly and nice. The staff is very positive. It's a pretty upbeat kind of atmosphere, not to mention it's a brand-new place with fresh paint and everything. They have a chef there, and apparently he's some kind of item and supposed to be very good. He came around to her room when she first moved in and talked about dishes that she liked. For a litte while she was just here by herself, she couldn't go down the dining room or anything. So they brought the meals to her. She had three meals a day, and she told me that they were just delicious. This community seems to go above and beyond with the chef and everything. I met the activities director and from what I have seen I have no problems with the staff, they're really upbeat. Their facilities are excellent. In terms of activities, they've got so many. For the independent living they have lots of get-togethers and potlucks for community building. They also have bible studies on Tuesday mornings at 10:00. The activities director is just all over the place, and she's got everything going on. What's also nice is that when you walk around there are lots of rooms, and the views are beautiful here. When you walk into a conference room it's wide open and beautiful. With all the trees, this place is beautiful. She has a little balcony, so she can look out over the grounds that they keep very nice. We felt like we got a really good deal for the price.

Franklin Park TPC Parkway was like a topnotch luxury resort. The staff member during the tour was very nice and very knowledgeable. The dining area was large, very nice, and luxurious. They had a lot of activities and a lot of amenities. It was beautiful, but it was a little bit too expensive.