By Jack Cumming
You may think that this is an article about another greenfield boondocks CCRC, but it’s not. Instead, it’s about a possible future rival to CCRCs, active adult, and other senior living models for younger oldsters. Imagine a carefree life at sea with vibrant neighbors, all of whom are adventurers like you. That imaginary life is now close to becoming a reality.
Like a Sea-Based CCRC
Villa Vie Residences seeks to make affordable cruising a lifestyle choice beyond just vacation-time cruising. The sponsors, Mikael Petterson and Kathy Villalba, have taken the initiative to get the venture out to sea.
Recently, I’ve taken a deep dive into the Villa Vie Residences business model to try to unravel and understand it. Mikael Petterson, the founder of Villa Vie, calls himself a “cruise start-up entrepreneur.” The idea is to sell ownership in a cruise ship for people who want to spend their freedom years circumnavigating the globe.
Mr. Petterson’s startup has bought a banged-up, aging cruise ship, the Braemar, renamed it the Odyssey, and is selling the staterooms as residences for a life at sea. CCRCs are often touted as being like land-based cruise ships. Now people who might move into a CCRC at a relatively young age can instead leave land behind and live that carefree cruise life directly. (Click here to download the planned itinerary.)
Standby Health Care
The Villa Vie concept comes close to matching the CCRC concept, complete with inclusive medical coverage. With doctors on board, it already has more highly credentialed medical staff than most CCRCs. Health care tracking and consultations are complimentary. Experienced health care professionals staff the medical center. It is staffed and equipped to handle everything from routine checkups to emergency interventions.
The promotional literature promises an onboard hospital, able to handle emergencies, chronic care, and routine care. In addition, there is on board a pharmacy and dental services. Villa Vie seeks to appeal to the younger, adventurous demographic among those who might otherwise consider early move-in to a CCRC.
The idea of seaborne residences, though, is still in its infancy. Intriguingly, one industry trade publication, Seatrade Cruise News, states that it will not cover residential ship concepts in detail unless “they become a reality and then only if they offer a regular retail cruising program.”
The Age of Working Remotely
One very attractive feature is something that I’ve never seen in a CCRC. An advanced business center is available for remote workers, and private office spaces can be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Moreover, Starlink internet service is included at no additional charge, and Starlink is more reliable and ubiquitous than many CCRC internet offerings. For people working remotely, while transitioning to a less challenging work-life-play balance, this can be ideal.
We can easily imagine similar entrepreneurs buying banged-up, aging CCRCs to try to transform them into something economically viable. Rejuvenating a 30-year-old senior living facility can be as complex as restoring the Villa Via Odyssey cruise ship has proven to be. It will take enormous capital. That suggests that the senior living industry, particularly its not-for-profit business segment, will have to rethink its business model to sustain the momentum it gained over the last 30 to 40 years. Deferred maintenance is often a lingering, unrecognized liability.
Financing and Ownership
Mikael Petterson has addressed the need for capital by turning to prospective resident-owners and giving them a fractional ownership share in the cruise ship. In concept, the enterprise will be run on mutual benefit principles but without the equity capital constraints and lack of transparency inherent in most CCRC not-for-profit senior living corporations.
Villa Vie residences secured a term loan facility from funds advised by NRP Maritime Asset Management AS, a Norwegian maritime fund manager. The fractional ownership shares are for the ship itself, Odyssey, and “owners” are guaranteed a minimum of 15 years of ownership, or for the operational life of the ship, whichever is longer.
Grassroots Enthusiasm
Like many startup entrepreneurs, Mr. Petterson is an optimist. Originally, the Odyssey was to leave port at the end of May, but as of mid-August, it still has not been cleared to sail. The most recent challenge was the automatic fire doors on board, a challenge with which many CCRC operators are familiar. (Click here for progress videos on the revitalization.)
In a stroke of genius, or perhaps mere serendipity, one couple of owner-guests, Steve and Angela, have become regular YouTubers with their channel, MidLife Cruising, detailing their experience. They are building a following, now approaching 7,000 regular viewers, and that is promoting considerable interest in the concept. That they are mere residents, and not part of management, lends credibility to their videos.
Steve and Angela aren’t the only ones. Johan and Lanette have a similar consumer-oriented YouTube channel with a larger following, though their content production began before their Villa Vie adventure. One can’t help but think how such YouTube channels might help prospective CCRC residents get comfortable with the concept, though we’ve never stumbled across anything like that.
Lessons to Learn
Promotional innovation is just one area in which CCRC operators can learn from Villa Vie Residences. The parallels with CCRCs are obvious, and there are many lessons that CCRC owners, financiers, and operators can learn from the successes and failures of the Villa Vie Residences novel venture.
One big tip that stood out for me was an engineering leader who praised the simplicity of asking the corporate owner a question and getting an answer on the spot. In his previous work, he had had to clear everything through an extended hierarchical authority ladder. That, too, may sound familiar to many people working in senior living and trying to do their best without getting into too much trouble.
It’s fun to dive into the videos linked to in this article and to experience vicariously, without risk or hassle, the adventure that appeals to the adventurous vagabond within the human soul.
