Everstory Partners adds New Jersey cemetery to its group

June 22, 2026/Cemetery, Finance, Products/

Everstory Partners the cemetery heavy company that operates more than 460 cemeteries, funeral homes, and crematories in the United States and Puerto Rico announced last week that they had acquired the Franklin Memorial Park in central New Jersey. You can read about the transaction from the Everstory Partners website here.

The cemetery was founded almost 100 years ago in the 1930’s and has been owned by the Pace family for many years. The notice about the acquisition makes this comment about the transaction, “The acquisition includes an approximately 60-acre cemetery and two mausoleums, the Chapel of Meditation and the Chapel of Serenity. The Chapel of Serenity was recently expanded to add 1,300 crypt spaces and 330 cremation niches.”

John Pace, the former owner and operator of the cemetery made this comment in the press release, “As I’ve come to know Everstory Partners, I’ve found a company that shares our commitment to providing families with comfort, serenity and a lasting place of remembrance. Their other locations in the area show their expertise in long-term stewardship and preserving the legacy of facilities like our family’s memorial park.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: Everstory Partners is the brand that was born in 2023 to survive what had been known as StoneMor Partners which had been taken private by the current owners in November 2022. From my point of view, current management and other staff at Everstory Partners has worked very hard to position the new brand for continuing success going forward.

The Right Place at the Right Time? — It’s probably fair to say that StoneMor Partners suffered from a brand that was falling in the public’s eye prior to the take private movement. It’s also fair to ask the question if they had enough capital to keep their properties in great condition.

One of the things that I have noticed in the past several years is that it seems to me that the Memorialization business, which certainly includes cemeteries, has a better opportunity for growth moving forward than the funeral home/cremation business. One of the reasons that I say that is that it appears that there is less consumer desire to spend on dispositions, such as cremations and funeral services, than on the final Memorialization process.

It appears to me that cemeteries through the use of capital expenditures to increase certain inventories, such as mausoleums, niches, and grave space areas have been able to bring “premium” priced memorialization options to the consumer public. Whereas, it appears to me that disposition choices that are growing such as Direct Cremation with No Services at funeral homes and crematories are many times purchased on a “value” or “low-priced” proposition.

There has been a lot said about the American “K” economy that is creating a class of consumers that has the economic means to purchase “premium” products and the resulting lower side of the “K” which makes traditional funerals a burden to purchase for many (see link below). I think that leads to “value” pricing for many necessary at-need dispositions but also leads to a growing segment that can spend with “premium” dollars for future pre-need Memorialization, if they wish. . . . . . That dynamic, in my opinion, creates great opportunity for those cemeteries that have “premium” inventory to sell.

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