Colorado Real Estate Journal - April 20, 2016
For years the leaders in senior health care and housing have been skilled-nursing operators with over 15,700 facilities and 1.7 million licensed beds, according to the Centers for Disease Control, currently operating nationally. Over the past few years, occupancy trends have shown movement of seniors into a broader spectrum of health care and housing options paired with declining census trends in skilled-nursing occupancy in most markets (National Investment Center). This has included residents with high-acuity medical and memory care needs. Senior industry experts predict that this trend will continue to grow, as new models of service are offering seniors more health care choices in state-of the-art living environments. Construction of senior housing for independent and assisted living remains strong in most primary real estate markets. As a result, many skilled-nursing facility operators have seized the opportunity to bring their proven expertise to the senior living market space. SNF operators are now active players in new construction and operations management of independent living, assisted living and memory care. In Colorado’s hot senior housing construction market, developers and investors have sought out proven operators to partner with in creating designs and services with the future needs of seniors in mind. “Selecting a seasoned operator that clearly understands not only the market, but the true needs and expectations of today and tomorrow’s seniors is critical to the success of each multimillion dollar investment,” stated Jay Moskowitz, CEO of Vivage Senior Living. Opening a new senior community requires a solid understanding of design features that foster wellness and independence, as well as state and federal regulatory requirements. Technology features are also a fast-growing area for senior housing and health care and the quality operator will be able to bring technology features to the operations that support the residents and the workflow of the staffing model. With the current focus on memory care, a top operator also be able to provide a holistic and well-versed team of dementia experts to memory care services, offering a wide array of memory care programs and features that offer life enrichment, optimal health and safety assurances. More than half of today’s assisted living residents are over age 85 and have several chronic health conditions. Forty-two percent of AL residents have memory care needs, and 37 percent need assistance with three or more activities of daily living (Argentum). An experienced operator also will bring proven clinical and wellness management programs and services, including a robust therapy and rehabilitation team for post-hospital episodic needs.