A few years ago the nonprofit corporation that built hundreds of units of affordable senior housing on the JCC campus between Creve Coeur and Maryland Heights retained Development Strategies to provide a strategy to combat the property’s increasingly higher vacancy rates after years of full occupancy and a long waiting list. We found that—like other HUD-subsidized senior properties built in the 1970s—inherent design deficiencies severely limited its market appeal to today’s senior population. Meanwhile, new affordable properties subsidized with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that had been built on the periphery of the market area were consistently chipping away at demand.

Our findings are consistent with the development plan for the new campus, a three-phase, $82.5 million project to completely replace its existing senior-living facilities. More info on the development is available here.