370 Harvard St. Brookline

After a half-century, a Brighton-based nonprofit senior housing developer is adopting a new brand name designed to raise its profile in Greater Boston.

Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly is rebranding itself as “2Life Communities,” a nod to the traditional Hebrew toast, “L’Chaim” and a hint at the new stage of life that residents enter at its properties.

“There’s such a dearth of good information on people’s options to age affordable and live well. We weren’t doing justice to the social good by being a hidden gem,” CEO Amy Schectman said. “We needed to get out there.”

At the same time, residents told the company they disliked the negative connotations associated with the word “elderly” in the 50-year-old organization’s original name.

The firm worked with two local branding consultants, Hatch and Echo & Co., on the new name and logo. 2Life Communities owns 1,200 apartments in four communities in Brighton, Newton and Framingham, of which 95 percent are subsidized for residents with median household incomes of just over $10,000 a year.

The firm is nearing completion of a new 61-unit, 100-percent affordable community on its Brighton campus, which received more than 1,000 applicants in an affordable housing lottery. Next year, it’s preparing to break ground on a 62-unit, all-affordable project at 370 Harvard St. in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner in a partnership with Congregation Kehillah Israel.

Plans for the complexes include “community-oriented” retail space intended to erase the boundaries between residences and the neighborhood. 2Life Communities, Schectman said.

“In the olden days there was a sense of sending seniors out to pasture and letting them be by themselves,” she said. “We’re trying to draw our neighbors into our building and foster these informal interactions. We’re not going to just hire a broker and get the best rent.”

The retail strategy is an outgrowth of 2Life Communities’ residential model including fitness and wellness programs, inter-generational programming and educational programs designed to combat social isolation among senior citizens.