A Vietnam vet found a dream senior living community. Then new owners jacked up the rent by 365%.
Martha Bray's monthly maintenance fee at the River Glen of St. Charles rose from $1,395 to $6,500 following the sale of the facility to a private equity firm.
When Martha Bray and her husband moved into River Glen of St. Charles, a senior living community west of Chicago, she figured it would be her last home. The couple loved the neighborhood’s tree-lined streets, tended lawns and tidy red-brick townhomes.
The Brays paid a $314,000 entry fee for their townhouse in 2013, plus a monthly maintenance fee. They didn’t own the property, but if they decided to leave, their contract promised they’d receive 85% of the current value determined by a local realtor.
Martha Bray with her husband, Richard.Courtesy Martha BrayA Vietnam veteran, Bray, 84, thrived at River Glen even after her husband died in 2016. But all that changed with a knock at Bray’s door in late June 2023. River Glen had been sold to a private equity firm and real estate investment group, she was told, and her financial contract was changing.River Glen’s new owners, Jaybird Capital of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Citrine Investment Group of Chicago, were jacking up Bray’s monthly maintenance from $1,395 to $6,500, a 365% increase, Bray said. And if she didn’t like the deal and left the community, she would receive only 75% of the entry fee she’d paid more than a decade earlier.
“We had to agree to their conditions by Sept. 1 or move,” Bray recalled.
She decided to move. But she estimates that she lost out on at least $100,000 because even though her home had risen in value, she only received 75% of the original entry fee.
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