This veteran entrepreneur is building a future for LGBTQ+ seniors

Loren Ostrow has been talking about his new development in Palm Springs, the LGBTQ+-centered retirement community Living Out, for a long time. The nine-acre complex features 122 apartments, a pool, jacuzzi areas, lots of recreation opportunities, and a restaurant, open to the public, from LA celebrity chef Susan Feniger.

Ostrow sees the development as one part of a necessary strategy to address a coming demographic explosion: the number of retirees in the U.S. is expected to double in the next ten years, with more than two million LGBTQ+ seniors joining their ranks by 2060.

Related:

This women’s sports bar started as an idea in a parking lot. Now it’s a raging success.

With small loans, a great idea, and a drive to “fake it till you make it,” Jenny Nguyen built a business that supports women in many ways.

We spoke with Ostrow, 72, on yet another sunny, late-autumn day in the mid-70s in Palm Springs, where he’s been hands-on following the opening of what he hopes will be his legacy business.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

LGBTQ Nation: Where did I find you today?

Loren Ostrow: I am sitting in the theater of Living Out, where I found some quiet. 

LGBTQ Nation: And you just opened.

LO: We are open. We have, I think, 29 or 30 residents here. I think we’ll probably have about 45 or 50 people by the end of December. So, yeah, we’re up and running, and I think people are really loving the idea of living here and the actuality of living here.

LGBTQ Nation: Are you staying at the development right now?

LO: No, I have a home in Palm Springs. I’m staying there. But I’m here every day. I’m here at breakfast — we serve continental breakfast as part of your rent — and I’m here frequently enough that I am getting a sense of what it’s like to live here.

LGBTQ Nation: What’s the last movie that you showed in the theater?

LO: I don’t know what the last one was. I can tell you the movie posters that I hung. My business partner of 46 years is a straight guy and said, “Why don’t you get movie posters?” I said, “What a great idea.” And then I thought, well, he’s going to look at all these movies and say, “I don’t know these movies.” Because they’re things like Johnny Guitar, The Women, and Go Fish.

LGBTQ Nation: Nice. You’re really going back in gay history.

LO: Right? Exactly.

LGBTQ Nation: It’s common wisdom in business to “Find a need and fill it.” What was the need that you discovered at the beginning of your career as an entrepreneur that needed filling?

LO: Well, at the beginning of my career I was an attorney. And so the need I found was providing people legal services, mostly in the world of commercial real estate. But most of the need that I’ve been involved in filling has not been particularly fulfilling. I developed hotels in the 80s, Embassy Suites hotels and in the 90s and 2000s and into the 2010s I developed casinos and operated casinos. And none of them had a great deal of, you know, meaning.

LGBTQ Nation: Would we know any of those casinos?

LO: I was involved with the Horseshoe casinos, probably the most famous casino in downtown Vegas. It was where “the gamblers gambled.” And then I went with Hollywood Park, which is a racetrack company, but they were trying to become a casino company. And then with Paul, my business partner, we built a casino in Louisiana called Margaritaville, which was a Jimmy Buffett-themed casino. So that’s been my career until this development, and this entrepreneurial effort finally has real meaning for me.

LGBTQ Nation: Is this the first LGBTQ+-centered business you’ve worked on?

LO: Yes, although I’ve been involved in the LGBTQ nonprofit world for many, many years. But this is the freshman private for-profit venture.

LGBTQ Nation: So why now?

LO: Well, I’ve been talking about it for 20, 25 years. I knew that the need was going to be there. I mean, it’s obvious to anybody who knows demographics that our community is going to age along with the general population and that there were not going to be environments that were open to them. So, I’ve been literally talking about this for years and years.

And when we sold the last Margaritaville casino, Paul said to me, “Come on, Loren. You’ve been talking about doing this forever. Let’s go do it together.” So that’s what we did. And it was a significant undertaking and a real entrepreneurial undertaking.

It’s extraordinarily rewarding for a businessperson like me to do something that’s as meaningful as Living Out. And it’s I think it’s a rare opportunity that I’ve been given to be able to do it.

LGBTQ Nation: Now that Living Out in Palm Springs is open, are there plans for more locations?

LO: I’d love to do that. You know, this was a big project — a $71 million project. And so I need to digest that, to make sure that it operates well, and that people are, you know, being delivered what their expectations are. So right now, I’m focused on the operation of the property. And I mean, there’s clearly a need for things like Living Out throughout the country. And so I hope to do others.

LGBTQ Nation: When will you know that you can move on to the next one?

LO: I am guessing probably six to 12 months from now.

LGBTQ Nation: It sounds like you’re very hands-on. I mean, you’re hanging movie posters.

LO: (laughing) Yeah, we’ve been pretty hands-on, both Paul and I. We get very involved. Also, I really do have a lot to offer here because of my relationships in the community, which are pretty extensive. For example, we just had a meeting about use of our community lounge here, which is kind of like a Starbucks, a really lovely part of the property. And I was saying, you know, I know so many people who I’m sure would love to come to speak to our residents about different things in the LGBTQ world.

Another is, I wanted to see if I could develop a community of LGBTQ artists here in the Coachella Valley that would be willing to hang their art at Living Out, and I would sell it for them if people were interested, in effect, turn it into a gallery. As a result, I think we probably have close to 200 pieces of art. And I think that’s a pretty amazing achievement, and it’s also been a way to make the community part of this project.

LGBTQ Nation: You’ve been with your business partner for 46 years. You’re gay.

LO: Yes.

LGBTQ Nation: He’s straight. What kind of effect have your different life experiences had on your partnership?

LO: I’d say a lot of influence. A lot of influence. Paul is a business guy, first and foremost. He’s very committed to the capitalist model. And while I am a business guy, I also have devoted a great deal of my energy to, in particular, the LGBTQ community and its wellness. And so, we bring different perspectives to the same issue. And I think it’s been a real strength of ours, that we’re not so focused on one versus the other.

LGBTQ Nation: Do you have a motto or a philosophy that guides your work?

LO: Whatever you’re doing, do it well.

LGBTQ Nation: Do you need a law degree to become a successful entrepreneur?

LO: No. I mean, a law degree helps in some ways, because I can read contracts and understand them. And, frankly, I can save money by drafting contracts and I understand a financial statement. But that’s a learned skill that you don’t need to go to law school for.

LGBTQ Nation: You’ve had a long career, and you must have had some failures. What’s the most ill-conceived business you’ve launched or pursued?

LO: So years ago, there was a very popular hamburger joint in downtown LA on the west side of the Harbor Freeway. It got torn down and the area where it was became a parking lot, because parking was much more valuable at that time than this restaurant. And so Paul and I decided that we would recreate this restaurant, but in a different location. And we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. My husband was joking about it this weekend, reminiscing about me dishing out fries.  

LGBTQ Nation: When did you know you had to pull the plug?

LO: When we were exhausted from dishing out fries.

LGBTQ Nation: You’re a longtime member of the LGBTQ+-centered reform synagogue, Kol Ami in West Hollywood. How important is faith in your life and work?

LO: I was raised as a practicing Jew, and the ritual and all has been very important to me, and because it’s tied to community. But it’s not faith that brought me to Kol Ami or kept me at Kol Ami. It’s community. I’m much more committed to community than I am to faith.

LGBTQ Nation: You wrote the forward to a collection of LGBTQ prayers, poems, liturgy, and rituals called Mishkan Ga’avah: Where Pride Dwells. Can you describe the collection and what it means to you?

LO: It’s a series of poems, prayers, and meditations that Rabbi Denise Eggert at Kol Ami has collected and written, because, in the Jewish world, there were no prayers that spoke to our community specifically. And certainly, none that could be used at our rituals, LGBTQ rituals. Again, to me, that was about community. I was raised Jewish, and I was always taught that when push came to shove, the Jewish community needed to help itself, and I apply that in the LGBTQ world. I think it’s great that we have allies. It’s great that we have laws protecting us, to a certain extent. But ultimately, we need to really take care of each other.

LGBTQ Nation: This year, you were a sponsor of the Los Angeles LGBTQ Center Gala, along with your husband and Living Out. What role does philanthropy play in branding a business?

LO: It doesn’t play a direct role. What it does is it gave me credibility to be in the LGBTQ community, that I was not a business looking to take advantage of the community. Because there have been developments where the community said, “Why are these people doing this?” And I don’t think there was ever a question about why I was doing this.

LGBTQ Nation: You’ve been with your husband Brian for 33 years, and with your business partner Paul for 46 years. What’s the secret to a happy long-term relationship in life or business?

LO: Loyalty. Loyalty and honesty and trust. You know, without those, things won’t last.

LGBTQ Nation: What’s the best advice you have for someone opening or starting their own business?

LO: To really think it through, to really plan, to think about the downside, and how you’re going to protect yourself if things don’t go as you plan. Because rarely does anything go as one plans.