New News....Yesterday's Press Release...
Diversified Senior Services Opens First in a Series of
60-Door Assisted Living Facilities
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Diversified Senior Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: DISS), a senior living and assisted living company, today announced the opening of Somerset Court, in Hamlet, N.C., the first in a series of 60-unit assisted living facilities the company plans to build and manage in small, southeastern communities in which residents can live independently while simultaneously integrating their daily lives with those of their friends and families.
A second similar assisted living residence is scheduled to open in the near future in Mocksville, also in North Carolina. Hamlet has a population of approximately 6,200 while Mocksville's population is approximately 3,400.
"Frankly," said Diversified president William Benton, "we have been literally overwhelmed by the enthusiasm we have received for our Hamlet facility. Thus far, we have accepted 20 elderly applicants who are presently in the process of moving in. This is an extremely high number of qualified applicants so soon after completion and we now expect to be fully rented up well within a year."
Benton said the rapid rental rate in Hamlet is in sharp contrast to some assisted living residences in larger cities where there is an oversupply of facilities. "Residences targeted to the low-to-moderate income elderly, living in smaller communities, are not even close to being overbuilt. There is a very large, unserved market out there that we are targeting. Our experience in Hamlet is evidence of that."
Benton believes that Diversified's model of developing moderately priced, comfortable independent and assisted living facilities in small communities where there is little if any competition will ultimately produce solid returns for investors, both in terms of personal satisfaction and financial gain. "As in Hamlet," he said, "we expect the rent-up rate in all of our small town facilities will greatly exceed industry standards and contribute significantly, over time, to our bottom line."
By developing facilities in small cities, Benton said, residents are more likely to be near their friends and families and are able to see them; attend social functions with them, vacation with them, eat with them, and otherwise interact with them as often as they please without burdening family members with the demands of their daily routines. Somerset Court provides parking for residents with cars, and transportation for those without cars.
"The key to the success of our 60-door assisted living facilities," Benton said, "is their moderate cost, the privacy they offer, their many amenities, their closeness to family, friends and shopping and the quality of our staffs."
The 60 private rooms at Somerset Court rent for $1,550 a month, well below the $3,500 to $5,000 charged by many facilities, and include three meals and a variety of snacks a day, and staff to provide medication monitoring, housekeeping and linen service. Some of the features of each room include individually controlled heating and air conditioning, cable television, internet access, in-room hospitality-type telephone service and a state-of- the-art emergency call system.
According to Benton, residents of assisted living facilities consist almost entirely of people whose lives can be more comfortable and productive living separately from their families and those who do not want to live alone.
Diversified has five additional 60-door facilities in various stages of completion. Two 30-door facilities, devoted exclusively to independent living, also are under construction. Benton said that beginning this year or early in the year 2000, he believes the company will be able to annually build between 8 and 12 30-door independent living facilities and four-to-six 60-door residences offering full assisted living services. SOURCE Diversified Senior Services, Inc.
-0- 06/30/99
/CONTACT: Bill Benton, CEO, or Jody Ragan, Investor Relations, of Diversified Senior Services, Inc., 336-724-1000, or Paul Keil of ACC Communications LLC, 805-693-8947, for Diversified Senior Services, Inc./ -- CHW010 -- 2830 06/30/99 08:31 EDT prnewswire.com Copyright PR Newswire 1998. All rights reserved.
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