🔒CT retirement communities expand as demand outpaces new development

Several of Connecticut’s 20 life plan senior living communities are in various stages of expansion as aging baby boomers drive demand for new retirement options.

One of the state’s largest projects is taking shape in Groton, where Fairview recently secured $304.2 million in financing to build 193 independent living residences and 72 assisted living units, including 28 memory care units.

The project, called Vista Point, also will include a 43,000-square-foot amenity center with multiple dining venues, an indoor saltwater pool, a performing arts center and additional recreational offerings. Altogether, the expansion will occupy about 20 acres.

Nearby, Stoneridge in Mystic, currently home to 364 residents, recently broke ground on a $72 million expansion that will add 54 independent living apartments and 14 assisted living units to its 34-acre campus. A new development in Stamford, Mozaic Concierge Living, is nearing completion and will include 164 independent living apartments and 42 units for assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing.

Projects in Simsbury and Bloomfield are also being pursued.

They are all life plan communities, an increasingly popular senior living model that offers a continuum of care — from independent living to skilled nursing — on a single campus, allowing residents to remain in the same community as their care needs change. While contracts vary, residents generally pay a substantial entrance fee based on the size of their unit, along with a monthly fee that covers housing and future healthcare services.

Because of those costs, life plan communities primarily serve higher-income retirees, and cater to their lifestyles.

Demand for such communities is rising as Connecticut’s population ages and new development fails to keep pace. About 20.4% of the state’s 3.69 million residents are age 65 or older, providing a large potential customer base.

Meeting that demand, however, has become increasingly difficult. From financing and zoning to staffing, life plan communities face significant challenges even as wait lists continue to grow, industry officials said.

According to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care’s 2026 forecast, inventory growth is expected to remain constrained because of lengthy development timelines, with most new units coming from expansions of existing campuses rather than entirely new communities.

“The next generation of individuals coming into our retirement communities definitely want choice, diversity, options,” said Billy Nelson, the CEO of Fairview in Groton.

‘Confident’ in demand

Fairview, which has been around for more than 130 years, is an example of a longtime senior housing nonprofit that has more recently invested in the life plan model, starting with its first phase in 2014, called Thames Edge at Fairview, featuring 40 residential units.

Two years later, Fairview doubled the size of the development with a second phase. But it’s taken until now to complete the original vision to build out the much larger campus.

Nelson said it took three years just to arrange the $304.2 million in financing for the latest expansion. Chicago-based investment bank Ziegler closed the tax-exempt bond financing deal, calling it one of the largest such deals for a senior living community in Connecticut.

According to Ziegler, the financing will fund project construction, refinance Fairview’s existing debt, establish debt service reserves, cover a portion of interest costs during construction and pay financing expenses.

Keith Robertson, managing director of senior living finance for Zeigler, said there was strong demand for the Fairview bond issue, in part because of the quality of the project.

“We had orders for about 4.7 times of the $304 million,” he said. “We were able to lower the interest rates that we had gone out to the market with because there was such high demand for those bonds.”

Across the country, capacity in both the for-profit and nonprofit senior housing sectors is growing by less than 1% annually because of construction costs, higher interest rates than in recent years and zoning challenges. Many of those challenges are even more pronounced in the Northeast, experts said.

Some larger organizations in the sector have shifted their growth strategies to acquisition and affiliation instead of taking on the risks of new construction.

Nelson said Fairview had to demonstrate demand by preselling 70% of the independent living units before lenders would commit to the project.

Some 57 apartments remain available ahead of the August groundbreaking, but Nelson expects the community to be nearly full by the time it opens.

“We’re very confident that there’s going to be more demand for the product than there is supply,” he said.

Local hurdles

Financing is only one obstacle facing life plan communities looking to expand.

While projects at Stoneridge and Mozaic have advanced, other developments remain tied up in local approval processes.

In Simsbury, McLean Affiliates is seeking to add 40 independent living homes at its Meadow Homes campus. But the project is now the subject of a lawsuit from neighboring property owners challenging zoning changes the town approved to allow the expansion.

In Bloomfield, Duncaster is seeking to expand its life plan community with a 61-unit residential building, 32 cottage units and a 14,200-square-foot addition to its existing buildings. After neighbors sued over the project’s original approval, however, the nonprofit withdrew its application, refiled it and restarted the local approval process.

“Our wait lists are so long, that’s why we’re trying to expand,” said Duncaster CEO Kelly Papa, adding she remains shocked at some of the public comments opposing the development, which she found ageist.

“As soon as the town approves it, the neighbors sue you, and it just keeps it going,” she said.

Mag Morelli, president of LeadingAge, which represents more than 130 senior housing providers in Connecticut and Rhode Island, said she believes the opposition in many communities reflects a wider pushback to any new housing, not a specific movement against senior living.

She said towns should welcome expanded senior living communities because residents who downsize can free up homes for younger families, easing pressure on the local housing market.

“It’s part of the cycle of housing,” she said. “It frees up either a starter home or a family home for another family to move into.”

Despite setbacks to its expansion plans, Papa said Duncaster is continuing to invest in its campus, taking out a $15 million bond through M&T Bank to finance renovations to its existing facilities.

But the pressures extend beyond securing approvals and financing. Papa said construction costs, interest rates and staffing expenses have all risen, while hiring remains difficult across a range of positions.

“We need IT professionals, we need accountants, we need chefs,” she said.