Bright Oaks Group plans to develop 20 assisted living communities in suburban Chicago and elsewhere in the Upper Midwest, along with 20 communities in Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast. Four new developments already under construction in Illinois and an additional five in Florida represent about $200 million of the $500 million that Bright Oaks plans to invest in new assisted living projects over the next several years. The company’s first project, Bright Oaks of Aurora (IL), will offer 36 assisted living and 24 memory-care units when it opens in winter 2015.
Bright Oaks, a privately held development company founded in 2013, is collaborating with Ecumen and Autumn Senior Living on four of its current projects:
Ecumen, based in Shoreview, Minnesota, will manage Bright Oaks of Wood Dale (IL), which is scheduled to open in 2016. The 150-unit assisted living facility, Ecumen’s first managed community in Illinois, will feature multiple neighborhoods, multiple dining areas, intergenerational spaces, and robust life-enrichment programs. The ground floor of the six-story building will feature retail space for companies and health-care organizations that cater to seniors. “We have designed Bright Oaks as an environment that adapts to its residents and not the other way around,” stated Nader Kameli, CEO of Bright Oaks Group. “We will offer services that are essential to comfortable living to our residents and senior members of the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Autumn Senior Living, based in Sarasota, will manage three new Florida communities expected to open in 2015: Bright Oaks of Naples, an 83-unit memory-care community; Bright Oaks of Fort Myers, a 140-unit community for both assisted living and memory-care; and Bright Oaks of Wildwood, a 91-unit assisted living and memory-care community. Bright Oaks of Fort Myers and Bright Oaks of Wildwood—as well as Bright Oaks of Wood Dale, in Illinois—will offer an innovative concept called The Bridge, which allows couples to continue to live together even when one needs memory-related care. “Being able to remain with one’s spouse provides a great sense of security and can lighten the difficult burden of memory loss for both partners,” according to Kameli.
Chicago-based Bright Oaks Group is a holding company established as part of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, a program created in 1990 as a way to use foreign investment to stimulate the U.S. economy through business development and job creation. Bright Oaks’ business mission is to create “intentional” communities for seniors needing assisted living and memory care services in a unique model that focuses less on hospitality and more on a home-like setting—a model that encourages and promotes engagement on a personal level. The company’s new developments will add hundreds of construction jobs in the various localities and, when fully operational, hundreds of professional positions in the new communities.
