Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Developer raises $100M for rehab centers
Brian O’Neill’s Recovery Centers of America has opened 3 facilities with plans moving forward for more
The developer who’s building a network of drug rehab centers raised another $100 million for the enterprise.
The regional developer who’s building a network of drug rehabilitation centers said Tuesday he has raised another $100 million for the enterprise.
Brian O’Neill, whose development company is based in King of Prussia, said his Recovery Centers of America raised the money from Deerfield Management Co., the New York-based health care investment firm with more than $6 billion under management.
The new funding commitment increases the total capital available to Recovery Centers of America, or RCA, to $331.5 million. The original $231.5 million commitment to RCA from Deerfield was one of the largest health care investments of 2015.
“We’re doing what we can to address this astronomical epidemic,” O’Neill said Tuesday. “We’re opening as fast as we can.”
So far, the new rehab company has opened three centers. The incremental capital commitment will be used to build additional RCA treatment centers in the Philadelphia, South Jersey, Boston, and the Greater Mid-Atlantic regions.
“We’re doing what we can to address this astronomical epidemic. We’re opening as fast as we can.” – Developer Brian O’Neill
In March, RCA opened Lighthouse in Mays Landing, New Jersey, which it said is operating at capacity, with plans to double its bed count.
Bracebridge Hall, a converted Georgian mansion that sits on 550 acres overlooking the Sassafras River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, opened in mid-October, and Westminster, a 90bed addiction treatment center in Massachusetts, opened in late October.
“We are extremely pleased
by Deerfield’s continued commitment to help RCA realize its extraordinary vision of bringing campuses for addiction treatment and recovery to communities throughout the Northeast,” Deni Carise, chief clinical officer of RCA, said in a statement. “Over 23 million Americans battle addiction. It’s destroying individuals, tearing apart families, and devastating communities. We are in the midst of a national epidemic. In response, RCA is building a national network of neighborhood-based, fivestar treatment facilities to combat the problem – this funding will help the company
achieve its goal.”
Within the greater Philadelphia region, RCA is working on new locations.
In late September, it was reported O’Neill Properties had purchased Devon Manor, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in Easttown. O’Neill said Tuesday RCA expects to open the facility to 250 patients in the late spring or early summer. It also plans to break ground next spring on a center for 130 patients near the Paoli Hospital in Willistown.
The company, meanwhile, will not build on a proposed site in Haddonfield, New Jersey, after settling out of
court but it is currently suing Gloucester Township in New Jersey after its planning board voted to deny RCA’s plan to open an addiction treatment facility there. The suit claims the planning board’s denial of plans to renovate an existing structure to house a behavioral health center with 37 beds violates the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Recovery Centers of America said its operation is based on the latest scientific research that indicates sustained recovery is more likely when patients stay connected to and supported by family and friends while building other, ongoing support networks.
Its team is comprised of clinicians, scientists, researchers, hospital operators, financial experts, and policy makers. RCA has assembled an advisory board drawn from institutions such as Penn, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Dartmouth and VCU to guide its management team.
“RCA shares Deerfield’s goal of creating and supporting businesses that can transform health care, by delivering more effective and affordable patient outcomes through innovative care models,” said Leslie Henshaw, a partner at Deerfield, in a prepared statement. “RCA is well on the road to uprooting conventional recovery treatments with bold new approaches designed to save lives and stem the epidemic of addiction afflicting our country.”