Business, nonprofit partner for elderly care

EAST COUNTY — When The Rev. Peter Young looks at a site plan for Church of Hope’s property, he sees people where boxes and bubbles depict future buildings and little league baseball fields.

And on the spot marked for an assisted-living facility, Young sees an opportunity for members of Hope to minister to the elderly on the site at 1560 Wendell Kent Road, Sarasota.

“How cool is it if grandma can see her grandson playing little league, or what if volunteers take residents to the ballpark?” Young said. “It’s to give them the quality of life. Churches have the opportunity to enhance their quality of life. It excites me. I see this as being the model.”

Church of Hope this month formalized its agreement with Omega Communities, a Birmingham, Ala.-based company that is partnering with large churches to build assisted-living facilities on or near their property.

Through the partnership, Omega orchestrates a deal between investors, the church and other parties, while the church provides land and/or volunteers for the facility. Life Care Services, which cares for more than 30,000 seniors through communities it manages and owns nationwide, will operate the facility.

Omega CEO Pat Trammell said he picked the operator because of its reputation and familiarity with partnering with nonprofits.

Per the agreement with Church of Hope, the church is leasing a 10-acre parcel to Omega and will receive a portion of the facility’s proceeds, which the church will use for mission work, including tutoring and food distribution programs, among others.

“It’s a win-win-win-win,” Trammell said. “Church of Hope will have a ministry dedicated to the facility. They see it as a ministry. We think that will increase the level of care and offset costs.”

The Fountains of Hope project will take about 13 months to build. Trammell said he expects the facility to be fully leased within the first 18 months.

Trammell and Young both see the 132-bed facility at Church of Hope as the model moving forward.

Young, whose background includes finance and engineering, is working on a manual so other churches know best how to structure their volunteer programs.

Trammell, whose company also has secured a deal with South Biscayne Church in North Port, also is looking at property in Texas, Georgia and Kentucky.

Omega has identified about 650 churches that meet the criteria for which Omega is looking, he said.

“Our goal is to do 50 of them in 10 years,” Trammell said. “We’d love to do 15 in Florida. In the market study we did, for every bed we build, there’s a need for six more.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].