The Daily Dig
Distinctive Living and their development partners, Melillo Equities and PointsFive, will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for CopperWood Senior Living on November 4, 2026. The project in Peapack, New Jersey, carries a price tag of nearly $200 million.
The plan converts the vacant former Pfizer/Beneficial Finance corporate campus into a luxury senior living community with 214 residences.
Office Hours Are Over
Bob Hillier designed the campus in 1979, and it has since been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Rather than clear the site, the team is rehabilitating the existing buildings.
They aren’t pretending that’s the easy way. “Working within an existing architecture of this quality is harder and slower than building new,” said Joe Jedlowski, Chairman and CEO of Distinctive Living.
Hillier will speak at the ceremony. He said the campus was designed as a group of small buildings at the original client’s request, and he sees that scale suiting the new use. “It has the same wonderful scale that this type of community should have,” he said.
Once finished, CopperWood will offer independent living, assisted living, and memory support.
Power to the People
The property will also host a solar field rated at 10 megawatts that will generate clean energy.
The neighbors get something out of it too. A preserve with walking trails and Copper Chophouse, the restaurant on the property, will both be open to the public.
The Peapack-Gladstone Land Use Board approved the redevelopment unanimously in September 2025.
Snapshot:
Project: CopperWood Senior Living
Developer/Operator: Distinctive Living (Freehold, NJ)
Development Partners: Melillo Equities, PointsFive
Location: 400 Essex Blvd, Peapack, NJ 07977
Sector: Senior living (independent, assisted, memory support)
Project Type: Adaptive reuse of a vacant corporate campus
Former Use: Pfizer/Beneficial Finance corporate campus
Original Architect: Bob Hillier (1979)
Historic Status: Nominated to the National Register of Historic Places
Value: Nearly $200 million
Units: 214 residences
Energy: Solar field rated at 10 megawatts
Public Amenities: Preserve with walking trails, Copper Chophouse restaurant
Approval: Unanimous Land Use Board approval, September 2025
Groundbreaking: November 4, 2026, 11 a.m.
Leasing Center: 240 Main Street, Suite 300, Gladstone, NJ 07934
Operator Portfolio: $2.29 billion in assets under oversight
TheJobWalk Thoughts
When the operator’s CEO says on the record that a job is “harder and slower than building new,” subs should price it that way. Office buildings typically carry far fewer wet stacks than senior housing needs, so plumbing and mechanical scope is likely to be a major piece of this conversion.
Memory support can bring added security, fire protection, and life safety considerations, depending on the approved design. The solar field and a public restaurant also point to specialty work beyond the core renovation. With no GC named in the release yet, BD teams should keep this one on their radar.
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