Residents Offer Their Perspectives on Three CCRC “Sales” in New Jersey

In New Jersey, ORANJ is an organization for residents of “continuing care retirement communities” (or CCRCs, also sometimes known as “Life Plan Communities,” following a LeadingAge marketing study and plan announced in November 2015). Founded in May 1991, members recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.  In a summer 2016 newsletter, called, appropriately ORANJ Tree, residents from three communities reported on major changes in ownership of their facilities, and how such changes can affect community moral and future prospects.  The CCRCs discussed were:

• 2016: Cadbury at Cherry Hill (reporting a new ownership is part of a conversion from nonprofit status to for-profit)
• 2016: Franciscan Oaks
• 2013: Fountains at Cedar Parke

In my observation, these New Jersey transactions, especially a conversion from nonprofit to for-profit, are part of a larger, national picture of communities struggling for identity in a competitive senior living market.