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In 2025, some regional operators are expanding their holdings nationally while narrowing their focus on certain parts of the care continuum.
Earlier this month, Evergreen Management announced it was taking on 57 Arden Courts communities formerly operated by ProMedica. The move represents a big shift for the operator, which prior to the deal owned just 11 communities in Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin.
With the transaction, Evergreen now owns the 57-community Arden Courts portfolio, expanding its ownership holdings to 68 communities in 12 states in total.
While some providers are deepening their local market presence through clustered growth and a “super-regional” presence in a select handful of states or markets, others like Toledo, Ohio-based Evergreen are taking on operations in multiple states with the belief that, instead of focusing on specific regions, they can find success focusing on specific parts of the senior living care continuum.
The Arden Courts expansion represents a “more national growth opportunity” for the company and extends Evergreen’s reach to new states, essentially allowing the company to “operate effectively both regionally and nationally,” Evergreen COO and President Luke Pile told me.
“With the addition of Arden Courts, Evergreen’s scale, operational scope, and geographic reach now place it closer to a national operator,” Pile told me.
This Evergreen deal shows a shift in strategy from a regional operator in a handful of areas to a specialization strategy in markets further afield, potentially signaling how other operators could grow broadly after creating regions of support.
In this week’s exclusive, members-only SHN+ Update, I unpack Evergreen’s recent shift from regional operator to national specialized player and offer the following takeaways:
- How Evergreen’s growth is emblematic of future industry growth
- Other forces affecting regional operators’ decisions in 2025 and 2026
- Why operators are embracing specialization and narrowing their focus
Inside Evergreen’s national growth opportunity
Evergreen acquired the 57 communities from ProMedica after having managed the Arden Courts portfolio since 2022.
In that time, the company increased occupancy from 69% in 2022 to 85% today, while monthly move-ins have increased year-over-year in the last three years. The company also has notched a $22 million reduction in agency staffing, Pile told me.
Evergreen’s demonstrated operating performance improvements reflect a delicate balance between large-scale efficiency and personalized, community-level support.
Through the acquisitions, Evergreen can extend its reach as a larger, national senior living operator while still reflecting the “strengths of a regional or super-regional model,” Pile said.
“Evergreen balances the efficiencies of larger scale operations with a commitment to personalized care and community-level engagement,” he told me.
Evergreen’s transaction is among the more significant portfolio shifts this year, and is part of a broader pattern of activity we’ve witnessed since 2024 as operators attempt to solidify regional support structures and pivot to meet higher acuity demand.
Evergreen’s strategic goal is building a “robust and diverse portfolio” with an emphasis on specialized care settings, including assisted living and memory care, Pile said.
“This acquisition allows Evergreen to strengthen its portfolio with a high-quality product that complements its existing communities and positions the company for future growth in specialized senior care,” Pile told me.
Real estate investment trusts such as Welltower (NYSE: WELL) and Ventas (NYSE: VTR) have stuck to a strategy of splitting up various portfolios into regional clusters and assigning them to certain operators.
Evergreen’s push to be a specialized operator is also worth paying attention to, as we’ve seen some larger providers make shifts toward supporting higher acuity care.
Take Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), for example, as the company expanded its care coordination platform HealthPlus to prepare for a higher acuity future.
Tutera Senior Living has also grown rapidly since 2023 with a focus in higher acuity, having added 45 communities with an emphasis on assisted living and memory care in preparation for this increased care environment.
Taken together, Evergreen’s acquisition exemplifies one company’s strategy to go bigger on a national scale with a more narrow focus on specialized care. I think other regional operators will evolve for the future to meet these specialized needs, able to leverage regional knowledge with national resources.
Specialization, hyper-focused improvement gain momentum
Beyond the regional senior living trend, I see more companies now than before seeking to narrowly focus on certain outcomes or specific parts of the continuum in order to grow and change for the future.
Take Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA), for example. The Dallas, Texas-based operator announced earlier this month it had reduced the company’s number of operating divisions from three to two in order to improve consistency in systems, processes and communication, according to CEO Brandon Ribar.
Health Dimensions Group (HDG) similarly launched a transition team and a turnaround team to handle newly acquired properties. The company developed its transition support team following acquisitions by Ventas and Sabra Health Care REIT (NASDAQ: SBRA) that expanded HDG’s management portfolio by 14 communities, CEO Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey told me.
“We don’t go in and change everything on day one, but we do prioritize certain key actions. We focus on maintaining revenue occupancy, retaining staff from the previous operator, and keeping labor on track. For us, it really comes down to relationships, systems, and performance,” Shvetzoff Hennessey told me.
Brookdale Senior Living is also starting to see results of deploying strike teams to local communities, and the results are starting to show as the company reduced the number of communities below 70% occupancy from 143 in the first quarter to 129 in the second quarter.
I think the year is shaping up to be one where operators have either tightened their local grip on familiar markets or are starting to stretch their national wings but with a tight focus on what types of deals they do – be that in a certain part of the continuum or a certain community profile – a la Evergreen.
In other words, this is not a time when growth for its own sake is being widely pursued – and that should benefit companies and the sector in the long run, as a more considered approach to building scale than has sometimes been the case in the past.
