Retirement Living Associates Nears ‘2.0’ Iteration With Ownership Model For Senior Living Residents

Retirement Living Associates is approaching its next iteration with an eye on growth and a new model that lets residents buy equity in their units.

North Carolina-based RLA owns and manages two large continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in the state and three assisted living and memory care communities in Florida. After improving operations in 2025, the company is weighing its options for future expansion in other states.

The company recently added new positions to accommodate its continued growth.

That includes a new office manager and bookkeeper to prepare for future opportunities and guide RLA communities toward further stabilization and growth following the retirements of longtime staff in those roles. Recently, the company promoted an outperforming executive director to vice president of operations, according to Owner and Principal David Ammons.

“We’ve been calling it RLA 2.0 lately,” Ammons told SHN. “We’re looking ahead to what the future holds for us.”

Ammons founded the organization in the early 1990s as a consulting business after years of working as an executive director at a senior housing community. Since then, RLA has undertaken development projects and added managed communities along the way.

The company recently broke ground on a $230 million CCRC in western North Carolina near Asheville, with a focus on offering a full continuum of care under a “full equity model” that allows new residents to own their units and pass them down to future generations in need of senior care. RLA also intends to purchase an additional Florida community, with the contract still being finalized for a property that offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care.

As part of the company’s growth, Ammons sees RLA serving as a third-party manager of communities in conjunction with ownership groups. The company is currently in negotiations with several potential suitors to build out RLA’s third-party management portfolio.

While Ammons says he “doesn’t want to live on an airplane” managing a countrywide portfolio, he sees RLA in a strong position to manage communities regionally in the Southeast, with the potential to grow its managed portfolio to up to 20 communities.

“We’re open to expanding it beyond the Southeast, but I don’t mean Washington or California,” Ammons said.

Ammons said he wants the company’s footprint to grow regionally in areas that are easily accessible via driving or flights under three hours.

“It’s very exciting,” Ammons said. “The younger leaders on the team are bringing an energy to all of this and we’re excited to see where we take RLA 2.0 in the years to come.”

The company’s latest development, Legacy at Mills River, will sit on a 112-acre property, with plans for two-thirds of the units to be “exterior units” with direct access to the outdoors, Ammons said. That will be combined with a “multi-story building” containing 76 condominium units made to “feel like apartments.” The community will also include 70 village homes known as “paired townhomes” and 70 free-standing homes.

The mix of different units is, in part, an effort to reach younger older adults seeking senior living while maintaining independent lifestyles, with the ability for families to purchase units and pass them on to future generations.

“I think the equity model is going to bring us a different clientele that’s excited about the model,” Ammons said. All RLA communities are designed differently, with various unit mixes and property types, and that’s by design, Ammons said, with the company aiming to build unique communities that represent their local surrounding area.

Hiring and retaining staff in rural markets remains a challenge for all operators, Ammons said, citing the lack of clinically licensed talent and the broader worker shortage. He noted that some RLA communities rely on staff of between 25 and 40 employees, most of whom live in the surrounding area. This makes turnover an especially challenging headwind, as other operators in rural markets have also highlighted these operational pressures.

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