A regional senior housing company that has made a name for itself in recent years by forging affinity relationships with churches has hired Christopher Rio as its new president and COO.
Omega Communities is a for-profit, faith-based developer of senior housing headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Omega has opened four assisted living and memory care communities in Florida and Alabama since 2015. Omega also has additional projects under development in Lady Lake, Florida; and McDonough, Georgia.
In the past, Omega has specialized in communities built on land owned by or leased from a church. In those arrangements, Omega owned the senior living community and worked with an operating partner, but gave the church partner a percentage of distributable cash flow once the project reached stabilization.
Rio, who joined Omega at the beginning of this month, has more than 30 years of experience as an executive in the senior housing space, including operating and managing multiple senior housing portfolios, according to a press release issued Wednesday.
Most recently, Rio worked with The LaSalle Group, where he helped manage a 43-community portfolio that spanned multiple states, according to Omega. Last year, he led a 15-year sale/leaseback transaction with a publicly traded REIT on a five-community portfolio. He also directed all preopening licensing and operations for 12 memory care communities.
“We appreciate his confidence in our four existing communities’ operations, our future pipeline and growth strategy and our overall business model,” said Omega Communities Chairman and CEO Pat Trammel, in the press release. “Chris has already made significant contributions as a consultant since August, and we are very excited about where he will lead us in the future.”
Written by Tim Regan
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