LCS Development, a Life Care Services company, has signed on as a resource partner with UniversityRetirementCommunities.com.
The site, which launched in the fall and is the brainchild of Andrew Carle, is meant to provide a one-stop directory of information for retirees interested in senior living communities that are associated with higher education institutions — what Carle calls university retirement communities, or URCs — as well as senior living companies and universities interested in developing URCs.
The agreement means that LCS can serve as a resource for visitors to the site, Carle told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
The partnership with LCS Development, he added, is part of the website’s mission “to not only strengthen, but bring needed structure and professional resources to what continues to be the rapidly growing sector for university retirement communities.”
“If UniversityRetirementCommunities.com can help connect institutions with the most experienced resource partners in the sector, we can help advance the model to everyone’s benefit,” Carle said. “So this is another feature of the site open to all, and LCS is the perfect partner given the depth of their experience in URCs.”
Carle, a former senior living executive and lead instructor for the graduate concentration in senior living administration at Georgetown University, has devised a system that further defines URCs as university based retirement communities, or UBRCs; university linked retirement communities, or ULRCs; or university affiliated retirement communities, or UARCs, depending on how many criteria they meet in a certification program.
LCS said it has a long-standing history of supporting URCs dating back to 1988 with the Green Hills life plan community close to Iowa State University in Ames, IA. LCS Development also was the developer in 2022 for Broadview Senior Living, a life plan community on the campus of Purchase College in Purchase, NY.
LCS conducts feasibility studies, operates and markets communities, Carle said, noting that in some cases, LCS owns the properties. “If a university was looking for something, LCS Development could build it, market it, design it — the whole thing,” he said.
The oldest baby boomers are turning 78 this year, Carle said, an occurrence that is “essentially the tipping point for entry into the independent living market.” The Baby Boom generation, he added, “represent the most highly educated retirement demographic in history” and “are seeking active, intellectually stimulating and intergenerational retirement environments — which is what a ‘college campus’ represents.”
Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.
As McKnight’s Senior Living previously has reported, the baby boomers are the most highly educated retirement demographic in history. Approximately 39% of adults aged 55 or more years (a group that also includes some members of Generation X) have a college degree, according to specialty investment bank Ziegler, and members of this age group are looking for new senior living experiences that include lifelong learning and intergenerational activities.
“They are coming and likely in massive numbers, whether the academic or senior living industries are ready for them or not,” Carle said.
In a blog post, LCS Executive Vice President/Senior Managing Director of Development Chuck Murphy said: “As the number of baby boomers continues to grow, our industry has an incredible opportunity to provide innovative retirement options, including intergenerational retirement communities.”
