A regional senior living provider with plans to grow in the Mid-Atlantic has added a new leadership role to its C-suite.
Norwood, Massachusetts-based LCB Senior Living hired Jason Kohler as its first COO, the company announced earlier this month.
Founded in 2011, LCB owns and operates 16 communities throughout Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with another three poised to open soon. The company also has two more properties slated to break ground within months—including one in Philadelphia—and another six it’s actively pursuing permits for.
As COO, Kohler will tend to the provider’s growing pipeline in the region. Kohler was most recently vice president and senior director of operations at Life Care Services, where he oversaw 42 different properties and helped fuel a period of steady expansion.
Before hiring Kohler, LCB shared many of the operational responsibilities among a few key members of its leadership team. But with an eye on new development, the team needed more help, according to LCB CEO Michael Stoller.
“We felt that we didn’t have enough depth on the operating side, especially as we move into the Mid-Atlantic,” Stoller told Senior Housing News. “With Jason and others, we think we have a great leadership team to take us all the way.”
Kohler’s main priority in the new role is to strengthen and streamline LCB’s culture, systems, and hiring practices as it expands.
“That’s what I’m going to be really focused on, scaling these best practices and systems, recruiting and retaining, and not losing the culture as we do grow,” Kohler told SHN.
Cruising down I-95
LCB’s active growth strategy is part of an effort to mirror the success of Newton Senior Living, a company founded by LCB’s executive team in 1994 and sold to Atria Senior Living in 2005. At its peak, Newton Senior Living owned or operated 27 communities in eight Mid-Atlantic states, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.
“We’ll start in New England to get a base and then go down the I-95 corridor again… and open communities as far south as Northern Virginia,” Stoller said. “We want to repeat the same business plan that we previously executed well [at Newton].”
LCB’s core business is assisted living communities with memory care wings, though it also dabbles in independent living. The company’s typical property contains an average of about 90 units; has amenities such as libraries, living rooms, country kitchens, bistros and theaters; and serves the upper-middle to higher-end market, Stoller said.
Like Newton Senior Living before it, LCB will focus exclusively on the Eastern Seaboard. The company will develop new properties at a fairly steady clip, with an acquisition or two along the way if the right opportunity presents itself.
“It’s fair to say for the next five years we’ll develop somewhere between three new properties to as many as five or six, depending on the year,” Stoller explained. “We’re continuing to be bullish on development.”
Though Newton ended in a sale after 11 years, LCB could be in for the longer haul.
“It’s a great business to be in right now,” Stoller said. “We plan to be in the business a long time.”
Written by Tim Regan
Companies featured in this article:
