Retirees on campus: Colleges tap into the senior housing market as enrollments shrink

Last spring, students at Lassell University concluded their last beginning Spanish class of the semester on a Monday afternoon. They practiced each other’s names, favorite meals, and pastimes in pairs.

Sara Leclair, a 20-year-old student, and Mandy Waddell were having a normal chat when Leclair asked her companion, “Cuantos an os tienes?” What is your age?

“Oh, this is becoming personal,” Waddell said with a pouty face. Ochenta y uno. 81. After they both laughed, the class continued.

The collaboration between Lasell University and Lasell Village, a senior housing complex on the school’s 54-acre site outside of Boston, brought the intergenerational peers Leclair, a student majoring in early childhood education, and Waddell, a retired elementary school teacher, together. The unconventional arrangement, whichoffers retireesthe chance to share space and studies with co-eds while providing a source of revenue for the university to help buttress its finances, has proved to be an enduring success, and increasingly, a blueprint.

Seniors living on campuses that were intended for 18-year-olds is perhaps the best example of America’s graying population. However, the unlikely combination is becoming increasingly logical as the number of students in the United States declines, educational costs skyrocket, and the nation’s population ages quickly. According to senior living specialist Andrew Carle, there are currently 85 university retirement communities in the US, and that number is only expected to rise in the years to come.

Carle remarked, “You couldn’t find a bigger odd couple.” However, when done correctly, there is a synergy and it may be a very profitable model for both sides.

Diverging Demographics

Undoubtedly, this is a specialized and frequently costly segment of the senior housing industry. It is not a panacea for the severe problems that higher education faces, which include dwindling enrollment, growing expenses, and financial threats this year brought on by the Trump administration. Furthermore, not every school is a good fit for welcoming a retirement community on campus. However, the collaboration is effective in many situations and exemplifies the kind of innovative thinking that will be needed more and more in the face of rapid demographic change.

Due to a drop in birth rates that began around the 2008 financial crisis, researchers predict that starting in the upcoming academic year, there will be significantly fewer high school graduates available to populate the nation’s higher education classrooms. In the meantime, almost 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day. It is anticipated that there would be 88 million older adults in the nation by 2050, accounting for almost 20% of the total population and surpassing those under the age of 18.

At least 40 American universities have already announced plans to close since 2020 due to the declining student body in higher education, and analysts estimate that in the event of a worst-case enrollment decline, up to 80 more institutions may be obliged to make similar announcements in the years to come.

The need for housing to meet the impending silver tsunami is becoming more urgent on the other side of the split due to the influx of seniors; existing trendlines indicate a concerning imbalance between supply and demand. According to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, a nonprofit organization, the United States will need over 806,000 new retirement residences by 2030. However, fewer than 20,000 units were being built in the 31 areas that NIC examines in the first quarter of this year, which is the lowest number since 2013.

Forming a Framework

In light of this, an increasing number of senior living operators and school administrators are collaborating to develop solutions that meet the needs of both parties. By doing this, they are leveraging a trend that has its origins in the 1980s and two trailblazing universities in the Midwest: Indiana University and Iowa State University. Both universities had to deal with the issue of retired academics, administrators, and alumni who wished to spend their final years on their cherished campuses. The schools responded by beginning adjacent developments to make room for them, eventually collaborating with senior housing operators and contributing to the creation of a new framework.

Since then, many variations have emerged all around the United States, ranging from looser associations to communities like Lasell Village, which are on campus and require residents to commit to logging 450 hours of instruction annually. Although some are on campus and have formal ties with the institution, others, like the Capstone Village community at the institution of Alabama, do not force residents to participate in programs. Others, such as Legacy Pointe, which is situated close to the main University of Central Florida campus, have a less official affiliation with a university.

A property lease, royalty arrangement, or management contract are common ways for schools to make money. Rarely, they establish complete or partial ownership of the retirement communities, occasionally via independent nonprofits.

In order to capitalize on Lasell University’s valuable land and add another revenue stream to its faltering balance sheet, former President Tom de Witt came up with the idea for Lasell Village. De Witt suggested turning an underutilized piece of land close to the campus’s perimeter into a retirement community as insolvency approached. In 2000, it opened.

“There would be nothing here now unless I literally pulled Lasell Junior College out of bankruptcy,” he stated in an interview.

Senior living complexes have been built on several deserted campuses. This was the situation with Boston’s Newbury College, which closed its doors in 2019 due to severe financial difficulties brought on by low enrollment and rising costs. The number of students at Newbury decreased from around 5,300 to roughly 600 in the 20 years preceding its demise.

In December 2024, Kisco Senior Living inaugurated The Newbury of Brookline, a luxurious senior living facility situated on the now-closed college campus. Mitton House, an 1896 mansion that was one of the school’s architectural crown jewels, was preserved when the development business HYM Investment Group demolished Newbury’s classrooms and dormitories to construct the new retirement community.

Closed college campuses can make for appealing locations in busy real estate cities like Boston or New York, according to Doug Manz, chief investment officer of HYM. The recently closed Quincy, Massachusetts, campus of Eastern Nazarene College has been offered for conversion. Additionally, senior housing may be planned near the College of New Rochelle, which is less than 20 miles from downtown Manhattan.

According to Manz, it’s regrettable that little liberal arts universities are going extinct. Senior housing is in high demand at the moment. When both trends occur simultaneously, highly special opportunities may arise.

Using over $400 million in municipal bonds to finish the building, Broadview, a senior living community on Purchase College’s campus in Westchester County, a rich portion of the greater New York area, attracted a lot of attention when it opened in December 2023. According to executive director Ashley Wade, the independent living area is full about 18 months later, with roughly 75 households on the waiting list.

She stated that there has been a great deal of interest. It illustrates how many people desire to retire when and how they choose. Our residents desire to continue learning during their retirement, just as they have throughout their lives.

One example of the type of residents drawn to Broadview is Steve Shelov, a former pediatrician who retired a year and a half ago. The 80-year-old’s busy itinerary has included teaching art history and Bible classes, visiting with school officials, mentoring pre-med students, and going to performances at Purchase College’s performing arts center. He said, “If you look at my week, it’s so full.”

Broadview, like the majority of retirement communities, charges an upfront admission fee that can range from roughly $270,000 to $2.5 million. When a resident passes away or vacates at the conclusion of their contract, the facility reimburses them or their designated beneficiary for 80% of the entrance fees. Additionally, they pay costs that range from roughly $4,000 to nearly $13,000 every month.

More Flexibility

Broadview pays $2 million annually to Purchase College in exchange for their location on the campus. According to Mike Kopas, vice president for administration at Purchase, 25% of that is used to assist faculty, while 75% is used for student scholarships. According to Kopas, although the revenue makes up a comparatively minor portion of Purchase’s balance sheet, it gives the school greater flexibility and the capacity to provide financial aid to students.

According to Kopas, the scholarship funds allocated thus far have exceeded our previous capacity.

Experts like Carle say they are receiving more inquiries from financially stressed universities considering retirement communities as the higher education industry becomes a more difficult place to operate. Sadly, the same traits that make a college unlikely to succeed in the modern world also make it a poor fit for senior living: tiny, private schools in isolated locations.

“Look, you’re a small liberal arts college in South Dakota with 900 students, 500 miles from anything,” Carle remarked, and I had to tell them. The market for senior living is simply nonexistent there.

This partnership may be difficult to execute for further reasons: It may be difficult for senior housing corporations, which are frequently under pressure to generate shareholder returns, to endure the bureaucratic procedures of higher education. For instance, in 2003, the administration of Purchase College suggested opening a senior living facility. In December 2023, twenty years later, doors opened.

Projects can also be delayed by unsupportive neighbors and the local authorities. For example, in Lasell Village, a zoning dispute that went to court delayed development for years. Additionally, schools may choose to collaborate with dubious businesses. Carle cites Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, which suffered construction delays and bankruptcy while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support their senior care facility.

At other times, when facilities are opened and retirees have taken up residence, tensions start to rise. Residents of the complex sued a nearby entertainment venue for persistent and continuous noise at the senior living community Mirabella on the campus of Arizona State University. Other concerns with the retirement home were brought to light by the complaints for certain pupils.

In a 2021 editorial piece for the student newspaper, Haley Tenore stated that ASU’s choice to construct Mirabella while disregarding the demands of its student body demonstrates its preference for financial gain above academic achievement. While on-campus students are forced to live in poor living conditions and face financial hardships, the university keeps growing, often in unwelcome places.

Mirabella and the venue eventually came to an agreement and requested that the action be dismissed by the court. Other students, meanwhile, have commended the on-campus retirement community for developing new programs and surprising friendships.

Bonus grandmother

According to experts, these agreements are most likely to succeed when they prioritize a cooperative strategy focused on lifetime learning and intergenerational experiences rather than merely viewing the partnership as a means of closing a financial deficit.

Students at Lasell Village say they feel like they have 200 grandparents and fill infamously hard-to-staff dining hall posts. For both students and locals, the groups have joined forces to provide a senior prom in the traditional meaning of the word.

Those encounters have led to the development of friendships. Lasell University alumnus Courtney Tello, who majored in elementary teaching and graduated in May, views Toni Miller of Lasell Village as her extra grandmother.

One of the highlights of my college experience has been getting to know Toni, Tello remarked. She checks in on me and keeps me motivated. I know a lot of students who would gain from a connection like this.

About half a mile from his residence as president of Lasell University, former president de Witt, who is now retired, moved in as a resident in August 2021.

Why wouldn’t I move in? Of course I did. “I said.” This is my neighborhood, and I served as president here for 19 years.

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