BY Sarah smith
ssmith@parkrapidsenterprise.com
Care-Age Country Home has been sold, but the service remains top-notch as Chris and Lynn Niemeyer move slowly toward semi-retirement.
Equity Exchange Partners, owned by Mike and Mox Gunderson of Detroit Lakes, purchased the facility off Highway 34 as of March 31.
Avinity Senior Living of Minneapolis will manage the facility, tucked in the woods behind Up North Storage, which Niemeyers still own.
Niemeyers wanted to make sure any sale would be a good fit after owning the assisted living facility 27 years, so they looked long and hard to find managers that would treat the 24 residents like family. Their daughter, Julie McCullogh, will remain local manager of the facility.
“The business is changing so much it needs to be taken to the next level,” Chris Niemeyer said.
Actually, Avinity and Equity Partners both wanted to buy Care-Age, so they came to a mutual decision that one would buy; the other would manage, said Avinity CEO Dale Fagre.
“I came up here to buy it but Mike approached me and said, ‘I’d kind of like to buy it,’” Fagre recalled. “Then he said, ‘If I buy it would you manage it?’”
A partnership was born. Avinity owns and manages several other properties.
“We want to operate it as a family,” Dale Fagre said. Avinity is a non-profit, faith-based senior organization.
Fagre has local ties to the area. His dad, Leonard Fagre, was a 1939 graduate of Park Rapids High School.
“We want to run it in a Christian manner,” said the younger Farge, a 1977 graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead. “We want to carry forth the legacy these folks have provided,” he added, referring to the Niemeyers.
“This is the first management and partnership going forward,” Dale Fagre said.
Because the assisted living market is highly competitive in the Twin Cities, Fagre said the partnership is looking for facilities in the central to northern Minnesota areas. They’re looking toward long-term business ventures.
“We’re not in business to flip businesses,” Fagre said.
“We found our mission works well in smaller communities so we’re looking at more properties,” he said.
Avinity owns a 95-unit housing unit in Hibbing with a full maintenance staff, Fagre said. If major repairs are needed, the Hibbing staff can come to the Park Rapids area.
“We operate like a family – that’s our culture, too,” he said of the Niemeyers’ style of management. “We believe in treating our employees well.”
They want the home to stay in compliance with the myriad of rules that apply to assisted living facilities and adhere to the high standards set by the Niemeyers.
They hope to host an open house later this spring for the public and for residents and their families. For more information, call Raelyne at 732-3721.
The name will remain the same. Niemeyers will engage in a few other projects, Chris said, and continue managing the storage facility.
