This story was originally published by NJBiz.
Author: Jessica Perry // April 7, 2025
FellowshipLIFE bills itself as offering more than just a residence. It is a place to live, really. Through amenities, services and a connection to local communities, the senior living and health care provider seeks to empower and enhance the lives of older adults.
And as the cohort of potential life plan community candidates rapidly increases, the Basking Ridge-based organization is intent on keeping its own growth on pace. To that end, FellowshipLIFE is strategically acquiring, innovating and investing both behind the scenes and on campus to meet present and future needs.
“[W]e like to be the ‘Apple’ of aging services, create a holistic embodiment of services and help people as they age in our ecosystem. And then, when they need other services — we have them,” explained Brian Lawrence, president and CEO of FellowshipLIFE.
“Think of how you live and how you’re integrated with the community around you, and those services around you,” he said. “You don’t want that to change as you get older – and the generation coming through our communities now don’t want that change either.”
According to U.S. Census data, the baby-boom generation will all officially reach 65-plus in the next five years. And “They want to have a bar at their community and have a drink with their friends. They want to have a restaurant-style experience, they want to have a fitness center. … They want those same amenities,” Lawrence explained of the incoming residents. “They want to be engaged in the same way. … So having that interaction [between the public and community] and that vibrancy … really sets us apart from others who haven’t adopted that philosophy yet.”
Fellowship Village in Basking Ridge opened in 1996, under what was then-called Fellowship Senior Living. FellowshipLIFE was established in 2021 to oversee a significantly larger footprint and expanding trove of services.
Presently, the not-for-profit organization has five life plan communities throughout New Jersey. Services offered include independent and assisted living, home care, medical, long-term care plans, hospice, care management coordinators, skilled nursing and more, as well as wellness programs for senior living residents — and those that live in the surrounding areas.
Make it yours
The life at FellowshipLIFE is characterized by a high level of hospitality, a focus on services, and providing a dynamic environment to meet the needs of people as they age, according to Lawrence.
“And a vision that ties into that is to transform the age and experience to empower one’s life again—it’s that transformational experience that we try to offer people, whether it’s in their homes or in one of our communities,” he told NJBIZ.
Offerings vary by location. “Some have assisted living memory care, some have skilled nursing … but we have the continuum in various stages throughout the five communities.
“They want to be engaged, they want to have a purpose in life, they want to have activities, they want to be involved. They focus on their wellbeing and their wellness … and we want to create the environment that meets all those seven dimensions of wellness [intellectual stimulation, physical exercise, health, spiritual, vocational, nutritional, social] and fitting that need that people are looking for today to really thrive in an environment and to be engaged with others.
“People don’t really want to be isolated, but those people that do and want to stay in the home or feel that they have a network around them, we also want to provide services that meet their needs as well. Because people want different things for themselves, whatever their environment is or whatever that is meaningful to them,” Lawrence said.
With the company for more than 25 years, the chief executive also previously served as CFO. In his current roles for over 15 years, Lawrence has overseen the organization’s evolution and growth.
Part of that comes from constantly evaluating: “Are we providing the right service to people?”
Lawrence highlighted a shift over the past five years to skip the subacute process in hospital discharges, which he said has created a need for people requiring more intensive rehab – at home.
In 2022, McKinsey & Co. projected that as much as $265 billion in care for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could move from a clinical setting to the home by 2025. “And we saw this five years ago, this shift in change, and we wanted to make sure that we met … this gap … this need that’s out there,” Lawrence explained.
For people returning home but require outpatient therapy, for example, the logistics of getting to and from appointments can be challenging, or unworkable. “So, we started the therapy at home about three years ago and it’s been very successful,” Lawrence said. “We service about 250 people per month throughout New Jersey in their homes. It’s grown quite a bit and grown much faster.”
The big boom
Among other factors, as the population continues to age, where and how people live is also changing. “There’s a huge lack of housing out there for a lot of people, especially aging America,” Lawrence said. “That’s going to be a lot more significant. And the gap is huge.”
His organization is trying to mitigate that deficit with its own growth.
According to Morgan Stanley, aging boomers requiring and seeking housing with increased care options will create strong tailwinds for senior living facilities, making up for losses coming out of COVID. The insights from the investment bank and financial services company highlighted increased occupancy rates, which were at 85% when the article was published last June.
And though, “Over the same period, rents have increased by 13 percent. Senior housing affordability has improved by more than 10 percentage points over the past decade, supporting occupancy gains and rental growth momentum.”
To achieve its goals, “We continue to look to, of course, grow and expand through affiliation or acquisition, not just in New Jersey, but also in the surrounding states around New Jersey,” Lawrence said.
And when looking at opportunities, it always starts with mission alignment, he said.
“It has to be a good fit for us from a culture perspective,” Lawrence explained. “And then we have to look at it from a marketing, business, financial perspective—operational perspective.”
Typically, when opportunities for affiliation emerge, Lawrence said it’s usually to help solve a problem. “There’s some challenge that’s there, which is why they’re looking for an affiliation,” he explained. That prompts FellowshipLIFE to assess and analyze if it can help make positive change for a community’s future.
“And we’ve passed on other communities because it didn’t fit with that process. Whether it was a line thrust from an operation missions or financial perspective, we definitely have passed on several opportunities over the years. So, it has to be a good alignment from us to consider an affiliation opportunity.”
Last July, FellowshipLIFE added its latest community, acquiring Applewood Village in Freehold from CentraState Healthcare System. Under the agreement, the community planned to keep close ties with former ownership. For instance, CentraState, an Atlantic Health System partner, continues to serve as preferred provider of comprehensive medical services for all residents, according to terms announced with the deal.
In evaluating targets, the demographics also need to make sense.
“In that local market, is there sufficient market in order to make sure it’s successful and to fit in our logistics, the location and where everybody is?” Lawrence said. “So, we look at all of that to make sure it makes sense.”
The deal with CentraState marked FellowshipLIFE’s entry to Monmouth County. Set on 44 acres, Applewood Village came onto the roster with 300 independent living units, 40 assisted living apartments, 60 skilled nursing apartments and 11 specialized memory care units.
Before Applewood, FellowshipLIFE added three other communities to its network in the two preceding years: Friends Village in Woodstown; Pines Village in Whiting; and Riverwalk Village in Hackettstown. Combined these three communities comprise about 345 independent living units, 198 assisted living beds and 66 active skilled nursing beds, with 2023 revenue of about $17.3 million.
Keeping up
Its flagship, Fellowship Village in Bedminster, is basically built out.
Fellowship Village currently has 254 independent living residences/units, 55 assisted living beds, 37 memory care beds and 67 skilled nursing beds. Ancillary and wellness services at the property include the more than 250-seat Sieminski Theater; Thrive Med Spa, offering botox, laser facials and more; and gym Vibe Fitness – all of which are open to the public, but located on campus.
“We’ve added some amenities and services over the past couple of years, but we cannot expand or add more independent living at this location,” Lawrence said. However, to keep with current consumer trends, FellowshipLIFE recently renovated the community’s existing apartments.
And where there is room to grow, FellowshipLIFE intends to do so.
“We have plans for expanding some of our communities where they can add more housing over the next five-to-10 years,” he said.
Every FellowshipLIFE community has its own master plan, Lawrence divulged. Another factor he said sets the organization apart from other operators. “We look at where things are trending and make sure that we’re ready to meet that trend that’s out there,” he said.
At Riverwalk Village in Hackettstown, Lawrence said Fellowship will essentially double the living spaces, adding another 47 homes to the about 45 already there. To meet the company’s philosophy of engagement, as he put it, Lawrence said the expansion work will also include some new amenities and services. “It could be adding a fitness center, a movie studio … game room, a salon, pool, a pickleball court – adding all these other amenities, because again, that’s what people are looking for.”
In Ocean County, the apartments at Pines Village recently underwent renovations, too, to update them to current times, along with upgrading some of the common amenities and services, according to Lawrence.
At Friends Village, FellowshipLIFE plans to add another 57 independent homes to the 75 that already comprise the South Jersey community. Set for a 2027 debut, the redevelopment effort will invest $45 million and include a total 114 brand-new apartment homes, according to FellowshipLIFE’s website. New amenities will include an indoor swimming pool, pub and bistro, outdoor dining, game room, library, auditorium and art room.
For newly acquired Applewood, Lawrence said the master planning for the community is currently underway. He estimated work on renovations would get started at the end of this year to align areas where higher levels of care are delivered with its person-centered care model.
Meanwhile, as with its other properties, FellowshipLIFE is also evaluating Applewood’s apartments to “see what we need to do to upgrade the finishes, amenities and layout to meet what the people are looking for today,” he said. “One shift in this industry is more people looking for larger homes and smaller. So that’s something that we’re investing into all the communities.”
At Applewood Village, that will include creating more one-bedroom with dens and two-bedroom apartments.
“We did the same thing for Pines Village, as well. … So we’re constantly looking at where the consumer is and the trends and where we need to be to meet that need or interest or demand that’s out there,” Lawrence said.
Welcome home
When it comes to residents, locals typically feed the pool. However, Lawrence did say several tenants have moved back to New Jersey from other locations to be closer to family as they age.
Mostly, people making the move to a FellowshipLIFE community come from within 10-to-20 miles of where they used to live, Lawrence said. He also noted, though, that as they add more to their campuses, that radius has widened.
“Not everyone is offering the type of lifestyle we offer … that is engaged and vibrant and with the amenities and services that we focus on. … We’ve had people in different parts of the state move through various communities, or outside our state come to us because of what we offer,” he said.
FellowshipLIFE does not currently offer affordable, subsidized housing, however Lawrence said it’s another growth area the company is pursuing.
“If you look at the demographic shift over the next 10 years of the different segments of – low, middle and high – there’s more growth in middle and high than in low as a whole. But you still need to serve all markets,” Lawrence said. “Right now we have middle market and upper market covered as an organization and then the lower market is something that we are aggressively looking into right now to meet that need.”
Across the board, Lawrence said the occupancy level at FellowshipLIFE’s communities is in the mid-80s percentagewise. But it varies from location to location. “For example, Fellowship Village, we have very robust move-ins every year—people moving in, but there’s always a rotation; people moving to higher levels of care and people moving in,” he said.
At present, the organization is not far off from its mark, in terms of resident ratios. “Our goal is, of course, to get over 90% for the entire organization,” Lawrence said.
Stable footing
According to him, “As we’ve grown, we’ve also grown our corporate support team to help support all of our communities and services, making sure that we are adding the expertise and the support to maintain that high level of hospitality and quality service.”
Lawrence referenced FellowshipLIFE’s in-house teams for marketing, IT, clinical, finance, building project and HR, for example. “So, we have all these professionals that we’ve built up in order to further elevate and support everyone to the level that they need to in order to deliver what we expect from everyone.”
Of course, the largest looming hurdle is staffing, Lawrence said. “So that’s been one of the biggest challenges for our industry as well as others, is to meet that growth with additional staffing that we need to grow.”
Fiscal responsibility is also important for FellowshipLIFE’s long-term goals.
“We need to be financially healthy in order to reinvest back into our services and meet the needs that are out there. So that’s all part of our strategic plan that we focus on,” Lawrence said.
The organization’s total operating revenues in 2023 were approximately $56.4 million. And last year, Fitch Ratings affirmed its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating at BBB- with a stable outlook.
Tech talk
For new residents, FellowshipLIFE President and CEO Brian Lawrence says tech-enabled entertainment is a big focus for folks moving into a FellowshipLIFE community. “Not necessarily
‘smart home’ stuff; it’s more like access to Wi-Fi. Do I have the same triple play? Do I have internet, phone, TV, access to streaming.”
Technology is also a focus on the back end, to help FellowshipLIFE achieve its growth goals and more efficiently deliver services.
“We’re investing in robotic process automation or AI technology, creating a lot more efficiencies and how we operate internally, which gives us more time to focus on service delivery care and everything else,” Lawrence said.
According to him, FellowshipLIFE is currently in its third year of investing in AI.
“It’s getting rid of those redundant tasks and making it done by the tiny robots in the machines that get it done for you,” he said. “So that’s created a much more efficient and focused organization and continues to do so.”
– Jessica Perry
The credit ratings agency highlighted the Applewood acquisition, for which it said FellowshipLIFE took on $42 million in bank debt to fund. Meanwhile, the target came on board with about $18 million in unrestricted cash, Fitch said.
Acknowledging the organization has been spending more than it’s taking in, Fitch attributed the situation at least in part due to effects from COVID-19, such as lagging occupancy levels, and ongoing reinvestments in its properties, which aim to improve the former. That work – and its expected reduction in the next few years – helps inform a positive outlook, according to Fitch.
In particular, and owing in part to their desirable, affluent surroundings, Applewood and Fellowship Village were highlighted for their potential to improve occupancy rates.
“Despite independent living (IL) occupancy averaging below 85%, Fitch assesses the … revenue defensibility as midrange, which reflects FV’s [Fellowship Village’s] demographically strong service area, the high-end amenities on the campus, and the expectation that over time IL [independent living] occupancy will improve. Lower IL occupancy at FV has been driven in part by pandemic-related challenges and ongoing capital projects, some of which were in the center of the campus, such as the new performance space and the expansion and renovation of FV’s health center,” Fitch said.
Looking ahead, the ratings agency expects FellowshipLIFE’s finances will improve in the next three to five years, with operating costs moving closer to revenue and cash reserves and debt coverage stabilizing.
“In the next 10 years, there’s going to be an increase of about 45% of people over 75, which is again, astronomically significant [amount of] people; a tsunami,” said Lawrence.
“That’s going to be a huge segment of the population that’ll be needing services across the board – specifically housing and care, among other things, of course,” he continued. “So, part of what our role is … to make sure that we are well prepared for that as best as we can; to meet that huge demand that’s upon us and at our doorstep.”
And FellowshipLIFE is busy putting in the work so it’s ready to respond.
“And we [are] well positioned in order to meet that huge need that’s out there and going to be out there for all of us,” Lawrence said.
Read more articles about FellowshipLIFE at NJBiz.com
