Lutheran Home at Concord Reserve

Lutheran Home at Concord Reserve, a continuing care retirement community in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, plans to affiliate with Life Enriching Communities, based almost four hours away in the Cincinnati suburb of Loveland, the organizations announced Wednesday. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second quarter.

LEC and LHCR said they have been discussing a possible affiliation for several months and already had entered into a consulting agreement through which LEC has provided financial support to LHCR while they explored the possibility of affiliation.

Both boards and the 32 Lutheran congregations that are members of LHCR now have approved of LHCR becoming an affiliate of LEC and reporting up through LEC’s organizational structure. LEC is affiliated with the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. Both organizations serve people of all faiths.

“Single-entity senior services organizations are rapidly affiliating with others of the same likeness,” LHCR CEO Charles Rinn said. “LHCR has been fortunate to identify another faith-based, not-for-profit provider of services with a culture and core values that will continue our rich history of mission and ministry.”

The combined organizations “will have the critical mass to effectively absorb the ongoing changes in the healthcare landscape of today and the future,” he added.

LHCR has an 88-year history of providing assisted living, memory care and nursing care services. The organization is in the process of adding 80 independent living apartments to the campus, with residents expected to move in in the second quarter.

“We are looking forward to helping continue LHCR’s high-quality mission,” LEC President and CEO Scott McQuinn said.

LEC, 120 years old, has two Cincinnati-area communities offering independent living, assisted living memory care, rehabilitation and nursing care, as well as a continuing care at home program.

“One of our strategic initiatives over the last several years has been to pursue affiliations and partnerships within the senior living sector,” McQuinn said. “The senior living landscape has been and will continue to see significant consolidation. Some of the pressures in the market that are driving this consolidation are the complexities of healthcare, competition, ability to attract and retain talent, technology and financial capacity.”