SENIOR SLIDE Consistent losses and failed expansions create an uncertain future for Charlotte’s Aldersgate retirement community. By Shannon Cuthrell
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n November 2022, the CEO of one of North Carolina’s oldest retirement communities sent a letter to early depositors on a major expansion project. Suzanne Hodge Pugh, president of the 231-acre Aldersgate United Methodist Retirement Community, wrote, “While there is no less of a desire to develop the Generations project, the harsh reality is that it is no longer economically viable for [ALPS] to be the sponsor.” Aldersgate’s parent organization, Aldersgate Life Plan Services, had pulled the plug on Generations, a development with 125 independent-living apartments and 16 memory-care suites. In the works since 2018, it was planned for the Shalom Park Jewish community property in affluent south Charlotte, about eight miles from Aldersgate’s east Queen City base. The project had jumped lots of financial and regulatory hurdles, including spending $7.5 million in bond funding for pre-construction activities. Records from September 2022 show 49 depositors reserved 52 units and agreed to pay 10% of the entrance fees, which ranged from about $500,000 to $730,000. In her letter, Pugh cited rising construction costs, interest rates and other inflationary issues. Worse, sales had launched
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