Revel Coo Steps Down, Operator To Name New Top Leader Soon

Revel Communities COO and Executive Vice President of Resident Experience Danette Opaczewski has left her post as the operator’s top leader.

Opaczewski last month stepped down from her role at the Scottsdale, Arizona-based operator — which is a division of larger real estate firm The Wolff Company – to free up more time to spend with her family on the East Coast, she told Senior Housing News Wednesday. Although she is still planning what comes next, Opaczewski said she hopes to bridge senior living and hospitality in an even greater way with her next role.

Revel is readying plans to bring on a new leader to fill the COO role and oversee operations of its 13 communities.

“We are excited to share that a new chief operating officer will be joining our team,” a representative for the company told Senior Housing News. “A formal announcement will follow after the holidays as we look ahead to an exciting new chapter.”

Opaczewski joined Revel in 2020, with plans at the time to elevate the company’s independent living communities with a hospitality-centric approach offering more personalized resident experiences.

As COO and EVP of resident experience, Opaczewski helped lead several hospitality-driven initiatives meant to help evolve the senior living operating model. Among them was a model launched last year under which residents could use “membership points” for dining, special events and catering, salon and spa pampering and other services and products.

The operator also piloted and later launched a program allowing residents to stay in a guest suite at other Revel communities for short stays.

“Don’t be afraid to try revenue streams or look at your business differently,” she told SHN during a TALKS appearance in 2023.

Preceding Opaczewski at Wolff and Revel was Niki Leondakis, former CEO of Equinox Fitness and former president of Kimpton Hotels. She joined the company to lead its senior living arm in 2019 and left about a year later to work as CEO of CorePower Yoga. 

Revel Communities is not the only senior living operator with its C-Suite org chart in flux. In September, Retirement Unlimited Inc. Doris-Ellie Sullivan also stepped down from her top leadership role. Terry Rogers, former Westminster Communities of Florida CEO, also stepped down from his position in September.

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