This story is a part of your SHN+ subscription
There may be loads of demand forward for senior dwelling operators in 2025 and past, however that doesn’t imply corporations are dashing to develop only for progress’s sake.
Whilst demand swells and common senior dwelling occupancy rises, operators should decelerate and take a extra considerate method to enlargement, in response to David Jennings, vice chairman of investments with Atria Senior Residing.
Senior dwelling operators ought to cluster their communities and develop a robust model technique for them, Jennings wrote in a NIC weblog publish in March. To that finish, Atria’s method to progress focuses on buying and creating clusters of communities within the markets the place it has a presence, with a super aim of reaching between six and 10 in any given market.
“It’s very environment friendly and efficient in the event you can function a number of buildings in a single MSA, one part of the MSA and even in some circumstances, even in a single small city,” Jennings advised Senior Housing Information.
Regional operations will help senior dwelling corporations hone their focus and share sources, and it’s a technique that Roswell, Georgia-based operator Phoenix Senior Residing has taken since its founding. In response to Phoenix Senior Residing CEO and Founder Jesse Marinko, the corporate’s main focus lies within the southeastern part of the nation.
That progress plan is pushed by a mixture of acquisition or administration alternatives and stems from the variety of folks migrating to the area, Marinko stated. Now, the corporate’s plan is to additional strengthen its presence in quite a lot of states, together with North Carolina and Alabama.
There’s extra to progress than simply merely buying close by communities. Jennings harassed that having a model technique is simply as essential, each internally for making a cohesive message for workers to allow them to fulfill a prospect’s expectations, together with externally to permit for clear pricing plans for various markets.
McLean, Virginia-based Dawn Senior Residing has finished this in its key markets, specifically Chicago, the New York Metropolis metro space, Los Angeles and the larger Washington, D.C. space, in response to CEO Jack Callison, Jr.
“We preserve that fame by way of constant management presence, native HR methods and a values-driven tradition that resonates with our frontline staff members,” Callison advised Senior Housing Information. “Whereas not all communities will carry the Dawn title, all our communities profit from the identical nationwide, extremely scalable working platform, efficiency oversight and staff tradition behind the scenes.”
Constructing out clusters
Among the many operators at the moment constructing out clusters of communities, notably within the southeast, is Sonida Senior Residing. Chief Funding Officer Max Levy stated the Dallas, Texas-based firm seems at issues in another way as an owner-operator, however that didn’t cease it from buying 10 property within the area in 2024.
Earlier than making the acquisitions, Levy stated the staff primarily was seeking to develop in metros with good demographic outlooks with robust inhabitants and earnings progress. That thought course of led to the corporate constructing a presence on the South Carolina coast and in Atlanta, along with its present communities from northern Florida as much as Virginia.
“After we take a look at that, it’s sometimes rather a lot much less about sharing neighborhood sources, as a lot as it’s about having a regional assist staff that’s sufficiently deep of their markets and environment friendly within the footprint they cowl,” Levy stated. ”We don’t wish to have regional administrators who must fly throughout the nation, for instance, to cowl their websites, after which they will’t know their markets.”
Sonida constructed out assist for its six communities in Florida by hiring a regional director native to the northern a part of the state, Levy stated. By doing so, it gave the corporate an edge by way of a longtime community of contacts to assist fill open positions.
Whereas there isn’t devoted mileage for distancing communities for a regional cluster, a number of operators, together with Louisville, Kentucky-based Atria Senior Residing, attempt to maintain these areas between a few hours as much as a most of a someday drive for regional leaders. Ideally, they might drive to 2 or extra communities whereas nonetheless ending up in their very own mattress at evening, Jennings stated.
Freehold, New Jersey-based Distinctive Senior Residing has constructed out clusters in three key areas: New Jersey, Florida and alongside the jap seaboard. Rising out a regional presence helps the operator have stronger ranges of pricing transparency, retain employees by gaining the flexibility to maneuver them to sister places and cut back the variety of misplaced leads, in response to CEO Joe Jedlowski.
“As a substitute of dropping that lead, we’re then shifting them to that asset and making that seamless for that household,” Jedlowski stated. “That’s very highly effective inside a cluster market. It’s a really totally different manner of taking a look at issues.”
Getting into into a brand new market takes extra than simply operational readiness, in response to Callison. It additionally requires a deep understanding of native situations, together with labor availability, referral networks, shopper expectations and aggressive positioning. Dawn makes use of a mixture of its nationwide operatiomal platform and information to supply regional and neighborhood leaders with “extremely custom-made, asset-level enterprise plans based mostly on the distinctive dynamics of their submarket,” Callison stated.
Utilizing this method, Dawn can develop into a brand new area and study site visitors patterns, transportation entry and workforce availability with hyper-specificity. For instance, the corporate’s underwriting for brand spanking new initiatives consists of information on bus and different mass transportation networks to gauge whether or not senior dwelling employees can simply journey to communities.
The method Phoenix takes when getting into a brand new market, particularly if a brand new state the corporate lacks a presence in, is approaching regulatory our bodies to “study the principles of the sport,” in response to Marinko. This consists of studying matters akin to essentially the most cited violations for senior dwelling operators, “pinch factors” and studying actual property progress trajectories.
That observe helped the corporate thrive in Huntsville, Alabama, which is outpacing close by Birmingham in inhabitants progress – a incontrovertible fact that solely grew to become obvious after learning market traits. Occupancy throughout Phoenix’s six communities within the state common round 97%.
“When you surveyed operators, 90% of them will most likely inform you they hate Alabama, and they’d by no means work there,” Marinko stated. “We’ve finished fantastic in Alabama. We perceive the principles, we perceive the rules, we perceive the checks and balances.”
Energy in sharing
An additional benefit from a clustered method is the flexibility for regional communities to share sources amongst one another.
A technique Sonida does that is by way of providing extra versatile schedules, permitting employees to select their hours and the neighborhood they want to work in. The observe is barely enhanced by way of communities being inside driving distance of one another as effectively, permitting employees members to select up and fill empty shifts.
Phoenix makes use of a enterprise intelligence program to see the place workers stay relative to the gap of a neighborhood. Within the occasion of a employees scarcity, government administrators can entry an inventory of close by workers who may very well be referred to as into the neighborhood on brief discover
In the meantime, there may be additionally the floating employees member method that Dawn takes. The corporate makes use of a extra versatile labor pool together with cross-trained specialists to “guarantee continuity of care throughout close by places,” in response to Callison. The observe has allowed Dawn to fully remove costly contract labor from its staffing pool.
And it’s not simply employees that profit from this flexibility, however residents too, as neighboring sister communities accomplice collectively on life-style occasions and wellness initiatives to reinforce the resident expertise.
“An enormous advantage of our tradition is that our staff members notice partnering with Dawn means they will take pleasure in a long run, extremely rewarding profession with great upward mobility given the depth of alternatives in native markets and areas, versus it being ‘only a job,’” Callison stated.
Constructing the model
One more advantage of a clustered progress method is the flexibility to construct out and make the most of varied manufacturers to achieve all kinds of prospects.
Atria, for instance, has its legacy Atria model, which primarily focuses on assisted dwelling. It additionally has Atria Signature, aimed toward larger finish communities and markets; Atria Park, which focuses on larger acuity residents; and its newer Coterie model, which focuses onultra-luxury.
“There’s quite a lot of methods we will take a look at issues,” Jennings stated. “So, if there’s one thing that matches higher in our Atria Park model, as an example it [can be] a tack-on to certainly one of our present markets. We are able to actually take a look at any a kind of manufacturers as a possible goal.”
Whereas Sonida tends to leverage its nationwide model title, it depends extra on area people fame to fill out its regional clusters.
“Our normal expertise has been that individuals select our communities not as a result of they’ve an affiliation with a selected nationwide operator, however simply because that particular neighborhood has a superb fame,” Levy stated. “We’ve simply targeted on constructing neighborhood native reputations, and really feel that’s what actually drives curiosity greater than somebody particularly attempting to hunt out a Sonida neighborhood.”
Dawn has three distinct segments it markets to: Luxurious, premium and center market. The nationwide Dawn model is barely utilized for its luxurious communities, whereas various manufacturers are used for its different choices to raised join with prospects in these markets. Regardless of the totally different branding, nevertheless, Callison stated all of them share “the identical scalable infrastructure” to make sure robust and dependable buyer and staff member experiences.
