Silver Life residents in Väsby furious at the founders: “They are gangsters”

Silver Life promised a member’s lounge, orangery with roof terrace, sauna, gym and exclusive care at Sophiahome.

When the golden edge project is gone, the future is uncertain for the residents of the newly built Väsby Towers.

– We are thoroughly deceived. They are gangsters who think they can do whatever they want, says Lars Nilbrink, 82, about Silver Life’s founder.

Show more

chevron-down

We are greeted by a strange, almost absurd sight upon arrival at Väsby Towers.

Next to the fairly worn central mall, where the Willys sign stands out like a bug in the eye, stands a gold-colored 18-story skyscraper.

As if someone took a small piece of Dubai and placed it next to a giant parking lot and construction site in Upplands Väsby.

Here was one of Silver Life’s three nursing homes. Housing that promised social community, a golden old age and a seamless transition for those who later needed more help in nursing homes.

Nothing bad about the center of Väsby, but nothing Trosa is.

From there, the moving load for Lars and Margo Nilbrink left in June last year.

– When one of the movers was going to carry the furniture in, he looked at me and then around and said: “Did you leave Trosa for this?”, says Margo Nilbrink, 82.

She and her husband Lars met eleven years ago when both lived in Sarasota in Florida. But it was the American Margo who had to convince the Swede Lars to leave the heat for Sweden.

First it was Stockholm, and four years ago Trosa. Now Upplands Väsby.

– We had a great apartment in Trosa, had many friends and had a great time. But it was a long way to Ica and the health center and now you’re getting old and can’t walk as far, says Lars Nilbrink, 82.

Then they found out about Silver Life, the free school billionaire Peje Emilson’s and former Scania CEO Leif Östling’s dream project of a senior residence with a golden edge.

– We really ignited the concept. We didn’t set fire to Upplands Väsby, but we thought it would probably work well, says Lars.

It didn’t. Because Silver Life has begun to wind down.

Just as for the residents of Graninge Strand, which we recently told about, the elderly in Väsby Towers were met in April by the snowy news.

Gunilla and Hans Enberg were there from the beginning.

– We were at a meeting at the Scandic hotel back in 2016. There were probably at least 200 people there and they talked about how fantastic it would be and how they should have Japanese toilets, remembers Hans Enberg, 84.

Among other things, they attracted care at the private hospital Sophiahemmet on Norra Djurgården in Stockholm. At Silver Life in Väsby there would also be a nurse one day a week.

– Six months before we were to move in, they announced that it would not be as planned. Nothing happened with the Sophia home and no nurse. And they increased the price from SEK 1,250 per person to SEK 1,750, says Hans Enberg, 84.

In January 2022, Hans and Gunilla were among the first to move into the gold tower. By then, Silver Life had already had a few difficult years. The group had made a large loss, just over 57 million in 2021, 28 million in 2020 and 16 million in 2019.

Add to that the spectacular skyscraper with orangery and roof terrace on the 18th floor, sauna with relaxation area, gym and training areas and a staffed member’s lounge.

And then the restaurant with the overly obvious name Guldkanten. It missed again on July 1.

Gunilla Enberg, 80, is furious to say the least.

– I am most disappointed that these billionaires just do what they want, and as soon as something happens, they stick. If Peje and Östling had any backbone, they would have been here and told us themselves. But they do nothing, they are cowardly cowards. It’s shameful.

Husband Hans fills in:

– That is what bothers us the most. They basically deceive us and promise lots of things to draw people here. Then you just pull. You pull the plank away from us when you put it all down.

Magnus Ullman, 71, has lived in Väsby since January last year. He sold the home and moved in, attracted, among other things, by the possibility that if they get sicker and need more care, they could move into the nursing home that is right next door.

Just like the ones in Graninge Strand and Täby, the nursing home was run under the auspices of Silver Life.

As founder Peje Emilsson expressed it during the inauguration in Nacka 2019:

– We were looking for a place where people could go from active — to not active, or from go-go, via slow go to no go, said Peje Emilsson with a laugh according to Neck Värmdö Posten.

But the reality looks different.

– That’s not how it works in practice. It is an aid worker at the municipality who decides who can live in a nursing home and in which one. It was also a lie from them, says Magnus Ullman.

He has been urged by a friend to look into the possibility of suing Silver Life.

– Making bad deals is of course not illegal. But making promises in brochures and prospectuses can be legally binding. But then we need to get together and prepare a class action, says Magnus Ullman.

Aftonbladet has unsuccessfully tried to reach the founders Peje Emilsson and Leif Östling. We also searched for the CEO Carl-Johan Westring and the major owner Conni Jonsson, known as the founder of the venture capital EQT, but they did not return.

They still have access to their member’s lounge and the gym is still there, except for some machines that have been moved away. But the question is for how long.

They don’t get to know anything from Silver Life. It is said that they have signed a 25-year contract for the premises they rent from the property owner Sveafastigheter, which through the subsidiary Hemvist manages and owns the buildings. But Silver Life themselves state that they will liquidate, what that means no one really knows.

Nor has Hemvist returned for a comment about the future.

Despite the debacle, Margo Nilbrink does not long to go home to Florida and the United States.

– But there we sue each other all the time, haha.

She is not only angry about the situation, but also disappointed.

– I could not believe that something like this would happen in Sweden. If it had happened in the US, I wouldn’t have been surprised, but I somehow thought that the laws were better in Sweden, that you were more protected.

Husband Lars Nilbrink is so shaken that he, possibly jokingly, looks over his entire ideological self-image.

– It is not Hemvist’s fault that it has turned out like this. It is the rich owners, it is they who have deceived us. It’s almost like you become a socialist in the old days, I have been a moderate all my life.