Diakon Senior Living operations and its four continuing care retirement / life plan communities will become part of Lutheran Senior Services under an agreement announced Wednesday that the organizations say will create one of the largest nonprofit senior living and care organizations in the country.
The transaction is pending regulatory approvals and is expected to close this summer.
“We are two financially healthy, not-for-profit organizations coming together strategically in the interest of better serving older adults,” LSS President and CEO Adam Marles said in a statement. “Dynamics in senior living are changing rapidly, and provider organizations must adapt and evolve to ensure the best for those we serve.”
The agreement between the two organizations, he added, will create additional scale that “will enable Lutheran Senior Services to compete for talent, add specialty positions, create career opportunities for our team, increase our purchasing/negotiating power and so much more.”
With the addition of Diakon’s operations and senior living communities, St. Louis-based LSS said it expects to see annual revenues of almost $350 million. The combined organization will have 12 CCRCs, one assisted living community and nine senior affordable housing communities, as well as home- and community-based services across three states: Illinois, Missouri and Pennsylvania (a new state for LSS). The combined organization will employ more than 3,500 people and serve 5,300 residents and additional older adults through HCBS. Altogether, the organizations said that they collectively will serve almost 15,000 older adults.
“This was a strategic decision made by both our organizations,” Diakon President CEO Scott Habecker said in the jointly issued press release. “This creates a larger senior living organization with an even greater competitive advantage, while also allowing Diakon to focus our resources on the growth of our diversified portfolio of affordable senior housing and children and family services.”
LSS ranked 15th in the country on the 2023 LeadingAge Ziegler 200 list of largest not-for-profit multi-site senior living and care organizations, with a total of 3,446 units. On the same list, Diakon claimed the No. 64 spot, with 1,236 units.
Based on 2023 numbers and assuming other organizations’ numbers were to remain the same, the combined company would move up to the No. 10 position, based on total units, including independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing, although LSS said Wednesday that the combined company would land in the No. 12 spot.
