Nonprofit senior living provider Cedar Community is updating its three communities with renovation projects to prepare for the next generation of senior living customers.
The nonprofit has three communities in Washington County, Wisconsin, north of Eau Claire, including a full continuum campus known as the Cedar Lake campus and a separate independent living campus with duplex homes and a memory care and assisted living community. The assisted living and memory care community sits on a 160-acre campus, of which 10 acres are currently developed – a “blank canvas” for future projects, according to CEO Nicole Pretre.
Earlier this month, Cedar Community completed a $40 million repositioning of the legacy Cedar Lake campus, an effort that took two years to complete. By downsizing skilled nursing beds from 415 to 75, the community ended up with 100,000 square feet of vacant space with which to build upon.
“Instead of being new, we’re very focused on being sustainable and thinking about the environment,” Pretre said.
To transform the 1980s-built main campus building at Cedar Lake, leadership worked with designers to add gabled elements and gave the property a “residential feel,” as opposed to its past as a looming cement building, while converting skilled nursing units to updated independent living apartments.
With 550 acres of natural green space and 1,500 feet of shoreline along the lake, incorporating renovated elements into the community while preserving the natural areas was an important guiding factor for the repositioning, Pretre said.
That included converting a skilled nursing building into independent living apartments and adding three assisted living floors. These changes resulted in the building regaining occupancy at or near 100%, a significant recovery from a pandemic-era low in the 60th percentile.
Behind the scenes, the community’s main campus saw a major overhaul of vital infrastructure with a new generator, a new fire alarm system, and upgraded Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. Additional upgrades included a new phone system, an electronic health record system, and a new nurse call system.
“It’s been tremendous to see the building coming back to life,” Pretre said.
Cedar Community faced staffing shortages as occupancy increased at its campuses, Pretre said. The operator worked to improve staff retention and recruitment in light of those challenges. She described it as a “mirrored journey” between the ability to staff adequately, which led to occupancy growth.
“It’s been an incredible balancing act over the last 18 months—rebuilding occupancy, rebuilding the team, and getting to a point where we feel like we’re in a really good place with both of those areas right now,” Pretre said.
Since the height of the pandemic, Pretre said the company’s independent living units have “seen a jump” in occupancy.
Moving forward, Pretre said the nonprofit senior living provider is considering growth across the “entire continuum” from a “revenue and diversification perspective.” This could include considering acquisition and affiliation opportunities to forge new partnerships.
While no plans are concrete, Pretre said she foresees future independent living growth and is currently weighing three acquisition opportunities.
“First of all, we’re going to take a breath, but that doesn’t mean we’re not constantly exploring and looking at those partnership opportunities,” Pretre said. “I would say there is an interesting breadth of opportunities; it’s multiple paths of growth for us.”
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