Growth for Brightview Senior Living
Brightview Senior Living announced that they are gearing up to add approximately 15 new communities in the next few years.
By Keith Loria, Contributing Writer
Baltimore—Brightview Senior Living announced that they are gearing up to add approximately 15 new communities in the next few years.
“We have 23 communities at Brightview right now and another 47 communities that are affordable housing on the Shelter Group side of our company,” Marilynn Duker, president of The Shelter Group, tells MHN. “We expect to start construction on five new communities this year and then we have a pipeline to allow us to do between four and six each year over the next several years.”
The Baltimore, Md.-based senior housing provider expects the new developments to not only continue its exceptional care and housing for its residents, but to create hundreds of new jobs to help the economy.
“Our primary growth has been in Brightview and we have been very fortunate to continue to have access to equity and have banks willing to lend to us during the recession, while some of our competitive companies have not been as active with development in recent years,” Duker says. “Our geography goes from Virginia to Massachusetts, and our new locations in the pipeline are Northern Virginia, Northern New Jersey, Southern Connecticut, Westchester and Long Island.”
Since January 2008, Brightview has opened eight communities located in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
“What’s unique about our company is that we develop each community for the area where we are building; the exterior architecture is designed to fit the neighborhood,” Duker says. “We don’t have a cookie cutter design, but each of our properties always has a movie theater, a pub and we make it about the people and the vibrant lifestyle we offer to residents.”
Each time Brightview opens a new community, Duker says, they look to hire anywhere from 60 to 120 new people to fill the open positions. Over the past four years, Brightview added almost 1,000 new jobs.
“That means Brightview will provide about 1,600 jobs in a six-year period,” added Duker. “We’re happy that we’ve been able to contribute, and will continue to provide, fulfilling and rewarding career paths as our nation’s economy continues to recover.”
Job opportunities include resident programming and activities, healthcare, kitchen and wait staff, housekeeping, grounds and plant maintenance, general operations, sales and marketing, human resources and more.
“The senior living industry has and continues to offer bright prospects for those who choose to make their career in this growing profession,” said Andrea Griesmar, vice president of human resources, Brightview Senior Living, in a press release. “During the recession, our company added an impressive number of new jobs. And, opportunities will continue to be available for those just starting out in their careers or with years of experience.”