Entrepreneur invests millions into 'no senior left behind' model

Young twenty-something newlyweds Kris and Chelsea Chana made something of an unusual home choice after their 2011 honeymoon to Staniel Cay in the Bahamas. 

Upon returning to Florida, the Orlando natives moved to Port Charlotte, where they got into the senior living industry. They got so into it that, after buying, gutting and renovating what was a shuttered 12-bed assisted living home, a $450,000 project, they actually moved into the facility themselves. Chelsea was 21 and a new University of Florida grad. Kris, also a UF grad, who walked away from a career in insurance and financial planning  — too boring, he says — was 23. “Chelsea learned how to crochet, I learned how to cook and together we made it work,” Kris Chana says. 

That lasted some three years — which in looking back, Chana, now 36, says was both a grind and a great learning experience. That’s because a decade later, while the couple no longer lives in the assisted living home, which they renamed Chelsea Place Retirement and Assisted Living, Kris Chana remains heavily invested in changing the industry. Not just in capital — of which he’s spent, borrowed and mortgaged millions of dollars on multiple entities. But in leading a seismic change in the way people think about, and businesses operate and deliver, senior care offerings. 

He does that through adult day care. The concept is to provide care and companionship for older adults during the day who require some assistance or supervision, but not at the level of, say, a skilled nursing home. This can accomplish two important things: provide the adult a place to go for meals, socialization, some health care services and more, while the primary caretaker, usually the spouse or partner, and almost always an unsung hero, gets a respite for the day or a few hours. 

By doing that, adult day care, says Chana, solves a big problem by providing “another option outside of staying at home care and going into a facility. I’m adult day care’s No. 1 fan.”

Chana has put some muscle behind the fandom. 

One part of that stems from ActivAge, his entry into adult day care. The company recently opened a Sarasota location, on Bee Ridge Road, to complement its first location, in Port Charlotte. (That location was the assisted living facility the couple ran; it’s since been renamed ActivAge at Chelsea Place.)

With a mission to help seniors live their best life and a vision “to change the world by helping seniors find joy, happiness and a renewed sense of purpose,” ActivAge is built around a tropical theme and a relaxing and chill vibe. Half the 16,000-square-foot Sarasota building is dedicated to the adult day care side, while another portion is for offices and the company’s content studio, where Chana and his team use proprietary software to create the day’s activities. Those activities include live music, exercise, nutritious meals and more, at, says Chana, half the cost of other services like in-home care and assisted living.

Including the $2.8 million building purchase, the Sarasota ActivAge is a $5.7 million project. It took about two years to get from building purchase to a mid-July grand opening. 

Photo by Lori Sax

While the energetic and excitable Chana loves talking about the Sarasota ActivAge, his why for adult day care goes deeper. On the business model side, he’s invested time and resources into building a franchise division for the business. He projects having five franchisees by 2025, 10 by 2026 and 100 in 10 to 15 years. (He says most franchisees will open three locations, as the business model is volume-dependent, so easy access is a key.)

That’s one way he seeks to grow the industry. 

Chana also has another side to how he promotes and grows the industry, which is in growth-mode but a bit fragmented. There are some 31,300 adult day care businesses in the U.S. as of 2023, according to research firm IBISWorld, up 3.6% from 2022. The sector had $7.4 billion in revenue in 2023, an increase of 6.4% from 2022,  IBISWorld reports. The industry is expected to reach $7.5 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 2.1% over the past five years.

Chana’s role in unifying the industry, and recruiting new entrepreneurs, for both ActiveAge and the field, is aided by harnessing the power of social media. He debuted a YouTube channel in 2019 dedicated to adult day care, where he promotes the industry and posts videos on frequently asked questions about getting into the business. Through mid-July he had posted more than 700 videos, with some 6,300 subscriptions and 409,000 views. Chana is also active on Facebook and LinkedIn, where he says the ongoing goal is to promote the industry as a viable alternative to other models in senior care — not just a call for franchisees. 

Chana has taken the mission to more platforms. He hosted a podcast, The CAREpreneur Show, from 2019-2022 and runs a monthly webinar on adult day care topics. Everything he does is free, save an Adult Day Care Mastermind group, because he wants that one to be a more exclusive offering.  

Chana says many people he speaks with over the platforms want to open or invest in adult day care but they are intimidated by the startup process. So he talks them through that while also going into his mission and his why. “Maybe I’ll inspire people to open up a mom and pop adult care center, or maybe they will get into ActivAge,” he says. “It doesn’t matter, as long as we can grow the adult day care industry.”