Delray's New Found Life Tripling IOP, Bed Capacity

Addiction Treatment Industry Newswire

04/30/2013 -ATIN – In another indication of the booming growth being experienced amongst South Florida addiction treatment drug rehab alcohol rehab services providers, intensive outpatient provider New Found Life of Delray Beach is adding new capacity to meet what can only be described as seeming insatiable demand for addictions services in the nation’s largest “destination” treatment marketplace.

New Found Life offers a highly comprehensive 8-12 week IOP program to all of its sober living clientele, most of which take advantage of the opportunity for coninuing care. “We have very high success rates and we guard those zealously,” says Saul Kane who, along with partner Mike Watt, co-founded New Found Life two years ago. Previously Kane worked as marketing director for what he described as two of the largest for-profit addiction treatment operations in Florida, while partner and CEO Watt comes to the treatment business with experience as an entrepreneur owning several small businesses. As is typical with addictions industry entrepreneurs, both partners entered the treatment business having logged multiple years in recovery themselves.

In addition to 3,000 sf of group rooms, therapist offices etc… that will expand and replace New Found Life’s existing IOP capacity, an additional potential 35 be

ds of sober living capacity is being brought online over time in two multi-aprtment units in Downtown Delray Beach, one property purchased the other leased. The cost of the expansion will be over $300K not including real estate, Watt says, adding that he paid $750K for an eight unit apartment complex,

Real Estate Driver

There is a mini frenzy going on in South Florida as real estate investors seek to link up with sober living and treatment expertise in order to take advantage of a sharp increase – 25 percent or so – in real estate prices off the low bottom hit about six months ago following the housing finance crisis. These investors are seeking to mimick the success of previous halfway house players – guys like Harold Jonas in Delray Beach and Steve Manko of Boca House – some of whom became multi-millionaires by boot strapping real estate through the sober house business. Treatment Magazine estimates that, throughout South Florida, there are hundreds of sober house operations whose thousands of beds have annual revenues that aggregate to between $50M and $100M annually. Both Kane and Watt are adamint that they are not at all in that type of business. “We are all about delivering a high quality continuing care experience for an array of equally high quality primary care providers, ” Watt says, adding that New Found Life will benefit from real estate appreciation but that is not the company’s primary goal at all.

Female Only

Toward that end, New Found Life will shortly be opening the only female-only sober living capacity in Delray Beach, adding to that an aftercare IOP eating disorder track headed by a well known clinician in the field. The new 18-female sober living beds will be in addition to the existing 13 beds for males, for which there will be 17 new beds opening up over time to bring total capacity to 48.

According to Kane, existing referrals come from primary care facilities outside of Florida, with New Found Life having relationships with places like Hazelden in Minnesota and new referral relationships with places like Father Martin’s Ashley on the East Coast and Benchmark in Texas.

Following expansion, New Found Life will have ten full time employees, a total that is slated to grow as the capacity gradually comes online over the next year. “We want to build a quality organization that avoids the employee turnover that is prevalent throughout the treatment business,” says Watt, adding that full medical and dental, as well as 401K retirement is available to all employees – a rarity amongst small treatment centers.

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