Heron Point is not for sale, contrary to some talk around town. But it is looking for a new management group to join.
That’s the word from executive director Thomas Sinnott, who acknowledges that the retirement village has been going through some difficulty but says, “We will survive.”
Sinnott says the bursting bubbles of the real estate and financial markets hit Heron Point with a double whammy. Potential residents have had trouble selling their homes and finding the wherewithal to buy into the facility.
The occupancy rate has been falling, he concedes, though he declines to say exactly how much. However, Sinnott says, “Marketing has begun to pick up. The tide is changing.”
What’s happening is that Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) everywhere are experiencing the same troubles – though Sinnott says the ones in the larger affiliations are doing okay.
Heron Point has been managed by Peninsula United Methodist Homes, which handles just three other communities in Delaware. And Sinnott says the times call for a larger association that can shift resources when one facility or another gets in trouble.
So, he says Heron Point is in discussions now about joining a larger CCRC group. Because of a confidentiality agreement, he cannot yet identify this organization.
Heron Point has 91 cottages and 101 apartments in addition to 45 assisted living accommodations and 38 health care licensed beds. It sits on a 66-acre campus overlooking the Chester River.
The community is now 18 years old and, Sinnott says, was doing fine financially until the markets plunged in 2007-08. That coincided with the fact that many of the residents had been living there since its first days, and had been passing on. That, and a sick stock market, made for vacancies.
But, he says, “I’m confident. Our mission hasn’t changed – to take care of our residents.”
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