FilBen Group, a developer and operator of multiple assisted-living facilities in the greater New York area, is a family business, but perhaps not a typical one.
It”™s more of a dual family business. FilBen is named for the first three letters of the two families that run it: Filaski and Benenson.
For 40 years, the families worked together in an unofficial capacity. From 1960 to 2000, the Filaski family primarily designed and developed skilled nursing facilities, while the Benenson family operated them.
The two separate, family-run businesses built and managed more than 5,000 nursing home beds across multiple facilities. The arrangement changed in 2001, when the families formalized the working relationship into the FilBen Group, a firm that employs 300 people and oversees operation of three assisted-living facilities from its offices at 800 Westchester Ave.
Today, the group comprises three companies: FilBen Development LLC, which handles site selection, financing and design; Lask Building, which manages engineering and construction; and FilBen Management LLC, which runs the health care operations at all FilBen-run facilities.
Joshua Benenson, a managing director for the FilBen Group and the third generation of Benensons in the business, said the vertically integrated structure is advantageous for the group. Managing development, construction and operations directly can shave 5 to 10 percent of costs at each stage, he said.
“Now we can offer a Class A, brand new product at a more reasonable price point,” he said.
The project that resulted in the creation of FilBen Group was Braemar at Medford, a 200-bed assisted-living facility on Long Island. While both families had experience with building and managing skilled nursing and independent-living facilities aimed at seniors, the group had yet to break into the fast-growing assisted-living elder care industry.
Assisted-living facilities are defined and licensed differently from state to state, so there is no exact definition of what they are or must do. Generally, the facilities provide services to people who can”™t live independently, but don”™t require the level of care provided by nursing homes or a nurse who provides in-home care.
The first licensed assisted-living facility opened in Oregon in 1981. By 2010, there were 31,100 assisted-living facilities in the U.S., according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The industry”™s rapid growth is attributed both to an aging population and a shift in consumer demand.
“I think socially, both care providers and adult children realized mom and dad may not need the institutional offerings of a skilled nursing facility, but they can”™t live at home,” said Richard Filaski, a managing director at FilBen.
Recognizing that assisted living could fill this void, FilBen has invested considerable resources into it. Along with Braemar at Medford, the group also launched facilities last year in Orange County, the 200-bed Braemar at Wallkill, and this year in Staten Island, with the 188-bed Brielle at Seaview ”“ a partnership with the nonprofit Met Council. FilBen is in the municipal review process for additional projects in both Rockland and Dutchess counties.
Benenson pointed to a social value for residents in assisted-care facilities.
“People in home care, generally speaking, they live alone,” Benenson said. “They have family that visits them once or twice a week, but they start to withdraw a little bit.”
Contrast that to a facility such as Braemar at Wallkill, which features a putting green, movie theater, game rooms and even a Happy Hour ”“ albeit one that starts at 3:30 p.m. and serves only a small glass of wine. It”™s part of what Benenson refers to as the deinstitutionalization of elder care: less time in the room, more time in the community.
“They are going out to meals with people and chatting and going out on excursions to museums and beaches and out to restaurants,” Benenson said. “And they tend to flourish or revive their spirit.”
All of that does come at a cost, of course. Braemar at Wallkill offers a tiered pricing program it says differentiates it from competitors that more often have ‘a la carte’ style pricing. Based on the level of care necessary, potential residents can pick from different rate levels that cover all services. Rates start at $4,000 per month and rise from there. Most residents pay that out of pocket, but some services can be paid through Medicaid. Expenses cannot be paid with Medicare.
The goal for FilBen”™s assisted-living facilities, Filaski said, is to ultimately allow people to stay in them longer. Residents usually arrive in assisted-living facilities in their mid-70s, but eventually age to a point they require the additional medical care of a skilled-nursing facility. The more services FilBen”™s operations become licensed to perform, the longer residents will be able to stay in assisted living.
Filaski said the group will continue to seek licenses to provide advanced levels of care as the state allows for it, such as care services for residents with dementia or Alzheimer”™s. The Braemar at Wallkill facility features a unit that specializes in memory care.
“Memory care is huge right now,” Filaski said. “It will continue to grow on the assisted-living side, and as providers fine tune that product it will open up the doors for a massive population that is unfortunately stuck in nursing homes, that could be better served in a community like ours.”
While the group enjoys its Westchester office location for its proximity to its three assisted-living facilities, it doesn”™t have any plans to build here, not yet anyway.
“We haven”™t found the right fit, but we will continue to look,” Filaski said. “We”™d like to be in Westchester as well.”
