Senior care provider CareMax will establish primary care clinics inside or near affordable housing communities, including those managed by real estate developer Related Companies, the firms announced Thursday.
CareMax will fund construction and provide care at 75 new clinics opening between 2022 and 2024, the company said in a news release. The deal is part of larger efforts to improve access to senior care in urban areas. The new facilities also will bring business to areas where commercial real estate markets have weakened, CareMax predicts.
"CareMax has been serving senior residents of affordable housing, including at one medical center embedded inside a senior housing community," President and CEO Carlos de Solo said in a news release. "We saw that there is a profound nationwide need for medical and social care within and convenient to affordable housing communities."
The healthcare company will target populations in multiple states who live in buildings or neighborhoods with high concentrations of older people or in public housing facilities, whether the properties Related-owned or owned by other developers. Related is one of the largest affordable housing developers in the country.
Nearly 4.9 million people, or 9%, of those 65 and older had incomes below the poverty thresholds in 2019, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis of Census data.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit older people disproportionately hard: More than three-quarters of COVID-19 fatalities from May through August 2020 were adults over 65, according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention data..
The first three new CareMax centers will open in New York City's Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs; Related owns two of those housing properties. CareMax plans to build 15 sites next year, 25 in 2023 and 35 in 2024.
Related bought $5 million in stock from CareMax at $10 per share and plans to purchase an additional $8 million in shares through warrants once the centers are in operation. The agreement is set to expire after 12 years.
