Demand is outstripping the number of newly opened senior living communities in 2026, imperiling the senior living industry’s ability to serve all of its potential customers in the future.
To prepare for those challenges, Pegasus Senior Living is growing with the goal of improving density within existing markets in Texas, while also taking advantage of new opportunities to manage independent living communities.
In March, Pegasus announced the Dallas-based provider had added 10 independent living communities under management owned by Healthpeak Properties (NYSE: DOC) and formerly operated by Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD). Historically, Pegasus has focused on assisted living and memory care, but this new growth will help the company meet rising demand for senior living, according to CEO Chris Hollister.
While demand for senior living remains strong, Hollister sees “storm clouds on the horizon” in the industry’s ability to hire nursing talent and solve affordability challenges for older adults given today’s development challenges.
“The lack of capacity for senior living and labor, particularly on the care side, I don’t see any easy solution to those things,” Hollister said during a recent episode of the SHN Transform podcast. “We’re exploring ways to adjust the operating model to better support clinical outcomes.”
Through its “Moneyball” inspired staffing data and analytics platform, Pegasus continues to hire executive director leaders based on evidence rather than relying on traditional recruiting instincts or self-reported personality tests. The end goal is to improve hiring, retention and on-site leadership through a data-driven process that helps make staffing decisions more analytical.
“By refining our data, we have identified the specific personality types that excel in key roles,” Hollister said during the podcast.
Now at the 60-community mark, Pegasus will continue to look for opportunities for new management contracts or acquisitions in the Texas Triangle, a 60,000-square-mile swath including the metropolitan areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio/Austin.
Listen to the latest Transform episode here.
Editor’s note: The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
On Pegasus’ new independent living growth:
We thought we had the chops to do it. Just because you’ve been in it a long time doesn’t mean you’re still good at it. You’ve got to stay fresh on trends. But this has really been my home career. [Richard] Williams, one of our two co-presidents, has been in as long as I have, and Dr. Sandra Petersen has been in it for a long time.
So we don’t really think of ourselves at all as active adult. We’ve never done active adult. It kind of evolved and was already a sector for years. I toured one and was fascinated, because some folks asked me to tour one and give my opinion since they were having a slower lease-up than expected. But we would not want to get in that space. That’s much more tilted toward real estate.
We can do anything from independent living, all the way through assisted and memory care. We like assisted living, of course, with a memory care component. But we’re much more, I think any operator would tell you the truth, we’re opportunistic. It’s not like we go in with a supercomputer and figure out targeting. These came to us. The phone rang, we answered it. It’s a good opportunity for us, it’s right in our core markets, and we’re excited to take it on.
On how recent growth helps shape the future for Pegasus:
I think our vision is really to have integrated senior living networks in the three mega metro areas of Houston, DFW, and Austin, San Antonio. If we were anywhere else in the world, if it was in Europe, Texas would be one of the largest countries. Not to sound like a braggadocious Texan, but you could say the same thing about California, perhaps New York or Florida. These are just giant places. There’s 30 million people, and I think about 24 million of those people are in what demographers call the Texas triangle, the approximately 250 mile triangle from DFW to Houston to San Antonio and back. Then we would like to stitch that together. You have major medical complexes. Houston is not only known as Space City, but it has top medical centers in the world.
I think the future of healthcare is going to be more integrated, reaching out where you can partner with regional hospice, regional home health, and even acute care providers that now know the Pegasus name, because I think you have to get to a certain density.
We’re going to do some creative things with the Pegasus statue that we’re getting commissioned. We think it could be an eye catching thing and help build the brand. It’s a symbol of inspiration from the Middle Ages, and it’s also a symbol of Dallas, so it aligns very well with our whole strategy of density.
I’m a fifth generation Texan on both sides of my family. I grew up in Dallas. I tend to think of this as my home region and identity, and it has great fundamentals. Whether it’s population growth, it’s very well diversified with respect not just to energy but high tech, manufacturing, distribution, tourism, it ticks all the boxes. They’re still very dynamic, growing metros. Not that we don’t have our challenges. I think long term San Antonio and Austin have some pretty serious water problems they need to address. But overall, I don’t see anything stopping the growth of Texas as an economic dynamo. So the fundamentals are good. It’s still a pretty low cost of living. It is, I think, adequately regulated.
On Pegasus’ new space-themed community, Pegasus Landing of Tanglewood:
This was sort of my brainchild. We bought this building and it was really underperforming. We’ve spent a lot of time on it, we have a great team in there now and we’re ramping up occupancy. It is assisted living and memory care. It’s a six-story building in a very affluent part of Houston known as the Tanglewood neighborhood. President H.W. Bush lived there and it’s halfway between River Oaks and Houston Country Club. We’ve done a full renovation. There are some very high quality, upscale competitors all around us and since we are a 25 year-old building and don’t have an indoor pool, I thought we had to do something creative. We wanted to give an homage to the city of Houston. So that building is now called Pegasus Landing of Tanglewood.
I got on Heritage Auctions and started buying space memorabilia, spending about $30,000. It’s probably where the value is now as the space thing is back.
With a great architectural team, we came up with a pergola that we’re calling the Launchpad. Each of the six posts is dedicated to the six Apollo missions that landed on the moon. It’s silver like a spaceship and evokes a launch pad. I’m very proud of that and I think it’s going to be a very successful project. We’re doing something for the city of Houston which is re-exploring its own identity as Space City.
On integrating new communities into the Pegasus operating model:
We’ve done a great job with the line staff, and we have a strong leadership team across operations, HR, finance, and sales and marketing. Our culture is strong, people want to work for Pegasus, and we aim to pay wages in the top quartile. We’ve also largely eliminated agency staffing, which has helped stabilize operations. At the end of the day, this is a complex operational business.
While it is real estate, it’s really healthcare driven. What people often underestimate is how much is happening every day inside a building, especially with a significant portion of residents having some level of cognitive impairment. That adds complexity to everything, from care delivery to decision making. There’s a constant balance between autonomy and control at the community level. Each building has different needs, but you still need strong systems in place. A key focus for us has been improving hiring, especially for executive directors, because that role is critical to performance.
One of the biggest ongoing challenges, both for us and the industry, is the clinical model. Nurses are essential, but many prefer clinical work over management responsibilities, which creates gaps in leadership at the community level. We’re exploring ways to adjust the operating model to better support clinical outcomes. Demand is very strong right now, while new development remains limited. As a result, a large portion of our portfolio is at or near full occupancy. Where we’re not performing, it typically comes down to operational or leadership issues, not demand. This is ultimately a people business, and success depends on having the right team in place.
On helping new staff integrate into the Pegasus model:
There are a lot of wonderful people in these communities. They are very loyal to their communities and residents, and many have already done their research on us. I think the culture we’re building, along with being Texas based and operating in Texas communities, has helped position us well. There are still different ways of doing things, and we need to manage that balance between autonomy and control. We’ve brought in an expert in emotional intelligence and are running training sessions to help build trust.
We also spend a lot of time with our executive directors and host an annual event focused on listening, collaboration and team alignment rather than just presentations. We’re continuing to support teams with subject matter experts across care, dining and operations to ensure consistency and development. As we shift more toward independent living, we’re also focused on strengthening our hospitality approach. It’s a different model that requires different skill sets. A big priority for us is creating a more personalized experience, understanding residents’ interests, making sure they feel welcomed and ensuring no one feels isolated.
On adapting to higher acuity, rising senior living demand:
The first line of defense is having a strong rehab partner in the building. Like assisted living, rehab companies are great when they have a good local team and inconsistent when they do not, regardless of the brand. Physical therapy, speech therapy and identifying residents’ needs are critical and will become even more important for value-based care.
I have been a doubter of value-based care partly because we were spread out, but as we gain density in the Texas Triangle, it starts making more sense with the right partners. We must ensure the focus remains on the resident rather than just checking boxes for government reimbursement. It is also vital to have partners with real expertise in gerontology who understand complex issues like drug interactions.
I believe AI and improved business intelligence can also help. I envision a world where executive directors and regional staff receive information on their phones each morning highlighting specific outliers and clinical issues. We currently have a disconnect between analysts using spreadsheets and on-site staff. We have a ton of data, but we need to make it easier for busy directors to interpret that information quickly. We need to solve that gap in human cognition by providing better, more accessible tools.
On staffing approach, creating co-leadership model:
We use predictive indices that include cognitive, behavioral and personality assessments. We have also incorporated emotional intelligence assessments because this is a business built on human skills.
Often, professional relationships degrade over small interpersonal irritations that people lack the skills to manage. By refining our data, we have identified the specific personality types that excel in key roles. Sales directors are typically promoters or influencers, while nursing directors often have the exact opposite traits. This creates a natural internal conflict that requires a strong, assertive executive director to navigate. The leader must negotiate the balance between sales and nursing to ensure we are not turning away residents we can care for while also not accepting those beyond our capabilities.
While some might worry we rely too much on these metrics, we have learned that interviews can be misleading. People can be chameleons, which is essentially what the movie Moneyball addressed. Traditional scouts looked at a player’s physique or “look,” while analytics revolutionized the game by focusing on actual performance data. As for our leadership, having co-presidents is a natural fit. I focus on strategy, growth and big ideas rather than day to day operations.
On outlook for senior living:
I think the labor crisis with nurses, we have been doing pretty well, but I think that is going to get harder because we’re all going to be straining at-capacity. You’re at 95% to 97% [occupancy]. There’s not going to be any room at the inn.
I think it’s a major problem for society and I don’t know where people are going to go with the cost of care, cost of electricity, with AI, and then you layer on top of that geopolitical issues. I think there are some real storm clouds on the horizon, but I am going to just try and stay calm, put the gun back in the drawer and do my day job.
We’re blessed to be in a great field where we’re able to serve people and we’re not probably going to be replaced by an AI robot anytime soon. The lack of capacity for senior living and labor, particularly on the care side, I don’t see any easy solution to those things.