Developer Joel FitzPatrick has studied baby boomers his entire life.

He’s built them starter homes and trophy homes, and now, as the generation ages, he plans to build retirement homes, starting with a condominium complex for empty nesters on Eastman Road in Cape Elizabeth.

When the boomers were in high school getting good grades, recalls FitzPatrick, 49, he was in high school getting bad grades – in everything but wood shop.

While many of his contemporaries were in college, studying for lucrative professional careers, FitzPatrick was in California, building condos with a tool belt, a hammer and his bare hands.

By the time the boomers were getting ready for their starter homes, FitzPatrick, was back East and getting ready to buy his first plot of land in his native Cape Elizabeth, on which he would build his first house.

He sold the house and bought some more land. Boomers had decided to settle down and buy houses, so FitzPatrick got into the business of building houses.

His first houses were small and modest, with single-car garages and unostentatious yards, a good place for young boomer couples to start their families and married lives. By the early 1990s, the couples were wealthier, their kids older and their starter homes too small.

FitzPatrick began building trophy homes. He designed each one with the potential buyer, but they all followed the same formula: at least four bedrooms (and the kids’ bedrooms all exactly the same size, so they won’t fight), a great room, extra bathrooms and closets, and a garage big enough for two full-size cars and a snowblower.

Then the kids went off to college, the boomers discovered they were graying empty-nesters eyeing retirement, and those big homes were suddenly too big – and too much hassle. The boomers began thinking about downsizing, and FitzPatrick began thinking about high-end, single-level, handicapped-accessible (but perfectly normal-looking) condominiums.

“The next 10 years, I’m going to be building this type of thing,” said the Cape Elizabeth-based developer. “(For) the same age group 10 years from now, I’ll be building nursing facilities – if I’m not in one.”

FitzPatrick’s first major project for the empty-nesters is a 46-unit condominium complex on Eastman Road in Cape Elizabeth. Currently under review by the Planning Board, the Eastman Meadows complex already has more than 20 potential buyers lined up, FitzPatrick says – despite the fact that it hasn’t broken ground and hasn’t advertised.

“It’s a quality of life that a lot of people are going to want,” said Bruce Balfour, a real estate agent who will be handling the condominium sales for FitzPatrick.

The Planning Board has received many complaints and letters from people concerned about traffic and the impact of the complex on the Eastman Road area. But it’s also received a number of comments from people who want the project to go forward so they can live there.

“As so-called empty-nest adults, we are hoping to downsize from our current home to reduce the burdens of home and property maintenance,” Cape Elizabeth residents Barbara and Nicholas Fowler wrote in an e-mail to the Planning Board. “A development such as Eastman Meadows is ideal for an aging population, for whom not only Cape Elizabeth but all area cities and towns must prepare as we become older. What is particularly appealing about this proposal is the developer’s commitment to design the units in full accordance with handicapped accessibility standards.”

The Fowlers didn’t return an e-mail seeking further comment.

According to the Maine State Planning Office, one in four Maine residents will be 65 or older by 2030. This presents a challenge economically and logistically. As boomers retire, there will be fewer wage-earners supporting more elderly people, and ever-improving medical care will ensure that the elderly live longer than in past generations.

Experts say the retirees will also expect to live more independently in their old age than their parents did.

“I think that (boomers) think of themselves as a lot younger than they really are,” said Roxane Cole, a principal and commercial broker at Ram Harnden Commercial Real Estate Services in Portland and president of the Maine Real Estate & Development Association. “If you think about what people did with their time in their 1950s, ’60s and ’70s when I was a kid, it is so different. People continue very active lifestyles until they die in some cases.”

Most boomers have no intention of spending their “twilight years” fading into invisibility, those in the housing industry say. While past generations of retirees might have moved in with their children and helped take care of their grandchildren, today’s retirees have no desire to live the same house with their offspring again.

“They want their kids and grandkids near them, say, within driving distance, but they don’t want to be living with them or next to them,” FitzPatrick said.

“Now people are looking at a window of living longer, so I think they plan ahead for it – not just in terms of their finances, but what they want to do to make those years quality years,” Cole said.

Frank O’Hara of Planning Decisions, a housing market and community analysis firm in South Portland, said retirees want to remain active, with recreational, educational and volunteer opportunities, and they want to be near cultural activities and airports. They want homes that are energy efficient, low-maintenance, private, safe and suitable for visitors, and easy to leave behind for a six-month vacation in Florida.

And they don’t want to have to move again.

“When people move in here, they’re going to want to stay here,” FitzPatrick said. “I want to design this so people can stay as long as possible. The next thing after that is assisted living.”

To that end, Eastern Meadows will feature single-story condominiums that are fully wheelchair accessible, with details such as Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms and garage slabs that are level with the finished floor. Options include open-concept kitchens and decks. Priced at about $350,000 to $450,000, the condos won’t be cheap – but they will be affordable for empty-nesters unloading a trophy home.

“People still want quality,” Balfour said. “They still want a two-car garage, a basement, and the way of living they had when they decided to downsize … It’s a quality of life that a lot of people are going to want. I think it will be a very successful project when it takes off.”

Several writers to the Planning Board said Eastern Meadows could allow them to live out their retirement in Cape Elizabeth.

“I have been looking for two years for an affordable condo without moving out of the town of Cape Elizabeth,” resident Barbara Wendell wrote. “I am a baby boomer and I need to downsize as I am a recent widow and the project would fit my needs perfectly, being affordable and letting me remain in the town I love and have been a resident for 13 years … (it) will allow me to remain in town well into old age and retirement.”