If you ask Experience Senior Living CEO Phill Barklow, the senior living industry has an opportunity to kick growth into higher gear in 2025.
But industry’s goal to “thrive in 2025” is contrasted with many operating challenges operators face in their plans for new growth. In working to narrow the supply-demand gap as development remains scarce, operators face many challenges to operations including continuing workforce headwinds on hiring licensed care staff, retaining quality workers and battling turnover.
“Whoever wins the talent war of 2025 will be positioned uniquely to take the industry where it needs to be in the next decade and beyond,” Barklow told Senior Housing News.
Senior Housing News reached out to a number of senior living executives to get their sentiments as they prepare for 2025. Below is the second part of the two-part series featuring their insights.
Gary Smith, President, Vi
Our industry began 2024 with a goal of surviving until 2025—or, putting it more optimistically, preparing to thrive in 2025. This optimism stemmed from expectations for steady economic improvement and a return to “normalcy” after disruptions starting in 2020. At Vi, we kicked off the year, as we do every year, by setting ambitious goals around resident satisfaction, team member satisfaction, continuous improvement, and quality in everything we do, with the expectation that strong financial results will follow.
I am very pleased that based on these goals, 2024 has been a very successful year, and we fully expect positive momentum to continue into 2025, both for our company and the senior living industry as a whole.
We are fortunate to be in an industry with a customer base that is expanding daily, as the leading edge of the Baby Boomers turns 78 and approaches the age when senior living becomes a more likely consideration. However, regardless of the size of our customer base, we must ensure that we are seen as a place to live that meets the goals, aspirations, and needs of our future residents.
We also want to be thought of by current residents and family members as one of the best decisions they’ve made in their lives, many wishing they had made the decision even sooner. I know that most of us in the industry share this view, and we all benefit when the decision to move into a senior living community is recognized as a positive milestone in one’s life.
In 2024, we continued to learn more about what’s important to our residents. As a company, we’ve been fortunate to be recognized as best-in-class in the markets where we operate. But as new residents evaluate their options, our research shows that we must also be seen as a place that provides access to new and rewarding experiences—a place where diverse adventures, wellness initiatives, and social connections are prioritized. Social connection, in particular, has emerged as a key focus area, as we know it is fundamental to resident satisfaction.
Many in our company have been reading “The Good Life,” by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. Waldinger and Schulz lead an ongoing 80-year study on happiness, and the conclusion is clear (spoiler alert): More than wealth, power, or fame, strong relationships and social connection are the key factors that contribute to a fulfilling life. While this may not surprise anyone in our industry, it reinforces our focus on lifestyle, wellness, social interaction, and compassionate care as the foundation for resident satisfaction.
With a focus on enhancing the resident experience in 2024, our resident care, lifestyle, and marketing teams collaborated to introduce Canvas, a person-centered care model for memory support residents. Canvas is based on research-driven approaches and offers specialized services to help residents live as fully as possible. It leverages advanced therapies such as virtual reality and includes a new system to improve connections between residents, staff, and families, providing interactive, content-driven digital experiences that foster social connections and meaningful engagement.
Additionally, we’ve made several key improvements to our food and beverage operations during 2024. One notable achievement was the implementation of a new point-of-sale system tailored specifically to senior living. This system not only improves workflow for team members but also personalizes the dining experience for residents and has helped us better manage dinner reservations during peak times. We also introduced fast-casual dining options at each community, offering variety and shorter dining times without compromising quality.
Another accomplishment we’re excited about in 2024 has been the introduction of a technology concierge position at each community. This role supports residents with their computers, phones, and other devices, while also assisting our corporate IT team with managing community technology needs.
Throughout the year, we made significant capital reinvestments in all our communities. We upgraded apartments, remodeled common areas, and expanded care venues in two locations, all to remain competitive in our markets. A major highlight was the completion of a $170 million multi-year redevelopment and expansion of our care center in Naples, Florida, which also included 64 new independent living units that are now 98% committed to new residents, with an average entrance fee exceeding $3 million. The Naples expansion was partially funded by a $120 million bank loan, which was fully repaid in the first month after move-ins began, leaving Vi debt-free.
As we all know, one key to resident satisfaction is employee satisfaction. We’re proud that our 2024 employee satisfaction survey saw a 93% participation rate, and all our locations were certified as Great Places to Work. We were also again ranked among the top five of Fortune’s Top 25 Workplaces in Aging Services. The challenges we all faced in staffing shortages, which for us started in mid-2021 and worsened through late 2022, have steadily improved.
During 2024, we reached pre-pandemic staffing levels after investing in initiatives such as new recruiting software, a revamped career website, and ongoing attention to both the hiring process and retention efforts, all of which helps us better identify great new talent and makes it easier and faster for those candidates to consider, apply to, and be onboarded with us. We continue to focus on leadership development programs and initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to supporting the growth of our team members. We are also steadfast in our commitment to REDI—Respect, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion—which ensures that our team members feel valued, appreciated, and empowered to be themselves. This ethos extends to our residents as well, as we want them to feel the same sense of belonging.
As we wrap up 2024, we are pleased that our revenues and expenses are exceeding expectations for the year, and entrance fees are also coming in better than budgeted. Overall occupancy has remained steady at around 90% throughout the year. Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate continued improvement in the economy, particularly in the management of expense inflation, further reductions in interest rates, and a continued shift in the residential housing market from a seller’s market to a stable buyer’s market. We think we may be another year away from the conditions needed, including access to capital, to support the construction of new communities, which will be critical in the near future, as our customer base continues to dramatically grow.
While we are concerned about the potential impacts of increased tariffs, expanded deportations, and changes in policies and regulations that may have unintended consequences, we are confident in the strength and resilience of our industry. Senior living has demonstrated its ability to weather challenges in the past, and I’m confident we will continue to thrive in 2025 and beyond, as we all keep the well-being of our residents and team members as our top priorities.
Tom Grape, CEO, Benchmark Senior Living
Benchmark had another strong year in 2024, with occupancy surpassing 90% and a return to pre-pandemic performance, or better, in virtually every metric. 2025 will be another important year as we have more work to do with our steadily improving margins.
We continue to focus heavily on our core portfolio and are focused on improvements in key areas:
- Growing our top-line revenues
- Working more efficiently with our vendors
- Improving quality scores at every community
- Enhancing the resident and associate experiences
- Completing ongoing major infrastructure investments, including an electronic health records system, a new human resources information system, a new facilities management system, and a new CRM
Additionally, we are upgrading associate benefits and completing significant capital expenditures (CapEx) investments in over 30 of our communities. Finally, we continue to invest in technology, culinary, memory care, and other programs to improve the resident experience and quality outcomes.
Benchmark is also continuing our disciplined growth strategy. In 2024, we acquired one community, opened another, and started construction on a new development. We will have another new opening in early 2025 and anticipate starting construction on two new communities in Q1 with several others on the horizon.
From an industry perspective, we expect nonstaffing expense growth to moderate to more normal (whatever that is) levels after several years of high inflationary growth. We expect rate growth to exceed expense growth but not at the same levels of recent years. Fewer distressed or challenged asset sales came to market over the last 24 months than we were expecting, but that trend seems to be picking up in 2025.
On the capital side, access to development capital is slowly loosening up but only for solid deals in good markets with strong operators and established relationships. New capital sources are actively looking to invest in stabilized senior living assets given the absence of investment opportunities in traditional asset classes like office and others.
Clearly, we’re poised for another exciting year ahead.
Phill Barklow, President, Experience Senior Living
We continue to be very bullish on new development when everyone else seems to be focused on value-add acquisitions. Quite frankly, most of what has come to the market at deep discounts we would not build as we don’t think it reflects our feedback of what the new and future customers are looking for. As difficult as development is to get done these days, we are committed to designing for the future and that just can’t happen in projects that have proven to be unsuccessful to fill.
We feel that 2025 will be all about attracting and retaining the top talent and incentivizing their performance. While that in itself is not earth-shattering from a concept perspective, we are committed to taking the industry to another level of talent and will do so with nontraditional methods of recruiting and compensation. Whoever wins the talent war of 2025 will be positioned uniquely to take the industry where it needs to be in the next decade and beyond.
We have heard many folks talk about staying alive till ‘25. We think of it a little different. We stayed alive in ’23, significantly grew in ’24 and plan on opening the floodgates in 2025. The demand is now for the right product, and we plan on delivering right on time.
We still are a bit concerned with the capital markets and rates. We don’t know what the Fed will do in 2025, so we are continuing to focus on what we can control.
Lynne Katzmann, CEO, Juniper Communities
This year was a banner year at Juniper in terms of financial performance, growth, and innovation. Our ROE for the year-end is expected to exceed 50% (yes, that is correct), and yet we believe 2025 can and will be a year of additional growth. We are also excited to launch our Senior Living 2.0 product. It is the base upon which we will build our future.
The term “Baby Boomer” was first used in 1963 in a Daily Press article by Leslie J. Nason. The article described the large increase in college enrollments as the oldest Baby Boomers were coming of age. And now, 10,000 Boomers are turning 65 every day. Further, in 2025, most Boomers will have hit that lifecycle marker. The earliest Boomers (born right after the end of the Second World War in 1946) are now 78 going on 79.
The post-COVID era has seen an increase in the desire for community living among Boomers, a trend that has been steadily gaining momentum. This month, two Hollywood icons have publicly embraced senior living, further challenging the stigma surrounding aging and showcasing the positive aspects of this lifestyle. This raises the question: Could this be the beginning of a new era for the senior living industry, where our efforts are recognized and celebrated as a positive and life-affirming choice?
Check out Jane Fonda’s four-minute CBS Sunday Morning piece with Ashton Applewhite on aging. Jane is a gorgeous and vibrant 87. Then there is Ted Danson’s new Netflix series, The Man Inside, which takes place within a senior living community. The show depicts the realities—fun and yes, the hardship—that can come from aging. But instead of painting the senior living community as a problem, it tells the story of a true community where residents and team members find true purpose, friendship, and belonging. Both give me great hope that 2025 can be different.
Many of us have said we must change our mindset and our model—the places, the programs, and the message we send. I believe that 2025 will be the pivotal year. The new consumer is upon us, and they want—will demand—a new product.
At Juniper, we are calling this Senior Living 2.0, senior living for the next generation. Many of our innovative programs are still here, but they will be integrated in a way that allows us to deliver a new product—one that is personalized, convenient, and delivered seamlessly.
In 2025, our strategic priorities are: finalizing and solidifying the foundational operating systems for this program; expanding and enhancing our wellness programming; and refining our external and internal messaging to better reflect our mission and values.
Priorities include:
- Diversifying revenue by introducing new premium services and expanding our reach to potential residents who are not yet ready to move in.
- Improving profitability through new revenue streams, higher occupancy, and careful management of expenses such as referral fees and utilities.
- Developing strong internal leadership to support growth and maintain our company culture.
- Modernizing older properties through renovations to enhance their appeal and market position.
- Refining our communication with all stakeholders by streamlining messaging and improving clarity.
- Building robust digital systems that automate operations, streamline workflows, and provide valuable data for informed decision-making.
There is a lot of work that will go into meeting these objectives. Two specific challenges are building leadership bench strength and shifting mindset with new messaging and communication strategies.
Building leadership talent is absolutely the lynchpin to success in all our other financial and operating objectives. Having strong, experienced, and acculturated leaders to lead is critical for portfolio stability and growth. Recruiting good people is only part of the solution. Being able to identify the right set of skills and attributes of people already on the team is equally difficult. Training them on programs is important, but giving them leadership training, mentoring, and coaching is key.
We formed our inaugural class of Juniper future leaders through enrollment in our new two-year Leadership Academy in 2024. In 2025, we will continue to hone the curriculum, support mechanisms, and practical learning opportunities that will deliver this next-gen leader.
Shifting mindset within a highly regulated industry is undeniably challenging. In 2024, we began framing our history of innovation to support the evolution of our “Senior Living 2.0” product – anticipating the desires and demands of the next generation of older adults.
I am pleased to report progress in communicating a new continuum of services, encompassing wellness, activities of daily living (ADL) support, chronic disease management, and integrated healthcare services. We also started to understand and articulate the evolving consumer needs and how we will effectively meet them.
Moving forward, we must consistently refine our language and learn to tell a compelling new story—both internally and externally. This will require a comprehensive overhaul of our website and other digital platforms. Critically, it will also necessitate dedicated time for open discussions within each community—across all shifts and departments—to explore our ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘how.’
While this is no easy feat, we believe it will yield significant returns.
In 2025, we plan to build and test several innovative service models. These models may transform how we deliver care, potentially altering where services are provided and, most significantly, how they are financed.
Our long-standing work in value-based care with Perennial Advantage serves as a crucial foundation for these endeavors. Additionally, we will actively pursue partnerships that enable us to deliver essential services through alternative and more effective means.
Success will hinge on the continued development of supporting technologies and a regulatory framework that can adapt to these innovative approaches. This is a tall order, but essential for our future.
Larry Gumina, CEO, Ohio Living
Our drive in 2025 will be on execution. With ongoing focus on margin improvement across our 11 life plan community campuses, home health, hospice, palliative medicine, and in our primary care joint venture with Curana Health, we’re centered on top-line revenue/market share growth and enhancing efficiencies. Fitch noted our improved rating this past quarter, which was a welcomed affirmation of our outcomes.
Partnerships will be a complementary focus. In July, we partnered with Graceworks Lutheran on a hospice joint venture, and performance is exceeding expectations on all fronts. In partnership with McGregor PACE, we’re opening McGregor PACE at Ohio Living Rockynol (Q1, 2025), which will enable us to provide care and support to 400 eligible PACE participants in Summit County, Ohio.
We’re also seeing growth in our provider-owned Medicare Advantage plan, Perennial Advantage of Ohio, an entity under the Perennial Consortium, with over 850 lives under a risk agreement. Our joint venture with Curana Health is now providing primary care support to over 50 campus communities throughout Ohio.
Additionally, we launched the Living Alliance Network this past year, which is a partnership option designed to enable not-for-profit operators to partner with Ohio Living without losing their independence/control. This is an alternative strategy to a typical sole member substitution—I would rather have operators lead with their own brand(s) but be underpinned by a larger entity. In short, market share and margin growth, both organically in our emerging markets and with our partners, will drive us forward into 2025.
Talent acquisition and retention strategies will be a priority for all of us in the foreseeable future. In the November LeadingAge board meeting, Katie Smith Sloan, CEO, invited Ron Hetrick, a labor economist, into the boardroom to deliver a terrific presentation on his most recent article, “The Rising Storm.”
This should be a must-read for all of us. We have a lot of work to do in terms of telling our story to invite future talent into our sector. Without our talent base, from bedside to the C-suite, our missions (regardless of tax status) are simply unsustainable.
I respectfully challenge my colleagues to look inside your boardrooms and assess: Do you have the right skill sets around the board table to set vision strategies in today’s environment? I would sadly suggest that an uncomfortable majority of operators do not. Amid the overwhelming demand of our aging society, I would suggest, from an operator perspective, that bigger may not necessarily be better, but I believe it will be stronger. The operational complexities of our industry sector are getting more challenging with our move from FFS to VBS. Access to capital is critically important, so we can expand housing and service options.
We need to lean into—and not reinvent the wheel on—innovation strategies, and optimize the strength and development opportunities of our talent base, which will lead to healthy succession planning. Finally, if board members are hoping for the “past” to reappear in their windshields of tomorrow, all I can say is: Good luck, and remember, hope is not a strategy.
David Eskenazy, CEO, Cogir USA
I think 2025 will be a continued transition from the occupancy recovery, new supply absorption period to one that sees a further shift in strategy. The industry has had to absorb what bordered ‘irrational exuberance’ in development seeing many non-traditional senior housing investors entering the market over the past 5 years. The post pandemic era has shown some of those investors a quick exit having been met with the grip of inflation, wage pressures, workforce challenges, oversupply and last but not least, a near doubling of financing rates.
But 2025 will find the end of new supply hitting the markets along with occupancy stabilization. This should also lead to a slowdown in concessions, and a firming of rates which should, at the very least, help combat the stubborn inflation that has yet to “transitory out’”
We have seen many shifts in the infrastructure of the industry as well. Some lenders, contractors, investors and insurance carriers have seen enough and have also found exits. While this may pose some new challenges in 2025, the recovery may form a new base for replacements.
The name of the game now is efficiency of operation. Labor costs and margin pressures demand it.
The consumer is also changing, and operators will need to shift their methods along with the ever changing customer. Traditional care models such as charging for care based upon points, and levels or simple ‘all you ever need bundles’ will also see changes with creative hybrids to simplify consumer confusion, and de-mystify the costs facing the consumer.
Like the start of any new season, the new year brings in new budgets, new optimism, and a restored sense of confidence for all good reasons. But with each year we look back at the many surprises, challenges and curve balls, most of which we didn’t necessarily see coming, we sleep with one eye open even if we are comforted by what seems to be a much brighter beginning to the new year.
Fee Stubblefield, Founder and CEO, The Springs Living
In 2024, we emerged from the COVID era and into the future of the “Great Boom Ahead” that I wrote about in “A Culture of Promise,” the book I published in June of this year. All of our quality indicators are up, and customer satisfaction is at an all-time high. That has led the way for significant growth in our financial indicators. Between 2023 and 2024, we reported that our same-store NOI grew by 4%. This year, our same-store forecast grew over 7%, and we stabilized our only building in lease-up, The Springs at Happy Valley, at 95% occupancy.
While margin growth has been steady, occupancy remains just under 93%, very close to last year and to the 94% forecasted for early January. Improvement in our financial performance has allowed us to pay out substantial bonuses to our leadership teams this year, rewarding them for the care and dedication they deliver to residents daily.
This past year also marked the opening of The Springs at The Waterfront in Vancouver, Washington. This 12-story, 250-unit development on the Columbia River opened to strong lease-up due to it being a place that inspires enjoying life to its fullest and having an operating team that has raised the bar. Ahead of our lease-up projections, we will track the occupancy growth of The Springs at The Waterfront as a bellwether for future growth. We believe the success of this project will inspire new possibilities of what senior housing and care can achieve.
We are excited to get back to our normal set of problems, such as solving the high turnover of front-line staff in our profession. This will take working together with industry leaders and governmental leadership in service to front-line staff. For example, in Oregon, where The Springs Living is based, one of the biggest challenges ahead will be dealing with regulators. They mandate staffing for reasons not tied to outcomes while not acknowledging the declining workforce and an organization’s ability to use technology to produce promised results for those we serve. Unless changed, this will produce increased cost structures, pushing our services out of the reach of many older adults. State and national associations will need to find new ways of being effective. Solving this issue together will significantly impact labor, our income statement’s biggest cost line item.
In 2025, I predict (no need for a crystal ball here) that our industry’s rate and occupancy data sharing will not progress like many other sectors, such as hospitality and multi-family. This must happen, but it continues to be blocked by a majority of the owners of senior housing buildings across the U.S. The question is why.
On a positive note, we are cautiously optimistic that we will announce the groundbreaking of our next Springs Living community. We believe this foreshadows lenders returning to construction lending and capital and developers setting up in a higher interest rate environment.
We believe that 2025 will see some meaningful impacts from technology, such as robotics and AI, in reducing operating costs by automating the most routine tasks in buildings and home office support systems.
We also think that healthcare and housing integration will contribute to being an experiment but fall short of achieving its goal of contributing to the bottom line of properties in most companies in the near term. In 2024, we experimented with healthcare integration but saw results not meeting expectations. However, the experimentation must continue to ultimately achieve success and better living environments for older adults. In 2025, we will pivot as needed to find solutions for better healthcare access and cost control. It will be a journey, so don’t stop believing.
My final prediction for 2025 will be the emergence of new sources of capital for operators that will be better aligned to deliver on the promises to older adults, the workforce, and investors. The way things have been done will not be the way things will be done.
Last year, I compared the industry to the novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” This year, I will go with a movie as a metaphor. In “Hope Floats,” a small-town girl returns to her hometown after failing at a perfect life in the big city. The theme is of resilience and relationships—two key attributes of owning and operating senior housing and care. Many, including me, are excited about the impact of data and technological innovation in our industry.
Certainly, the big-city companies are throwing tons of money at these initiatives heralded as solutions to systemic problems like employee retention. Yet, in the end, all business is local, and data and tech will never replace the quality impacts that come from people. Don’t use the data and tech as a workaround for being good at the people part. Be good at the people part and use the data and tech to make it better.
Adam Kaplan, CEO, Solera Senior Living
As we all reflect on 2024 and look to 2025, I wish I could say I have another headline-worthy mantra like last year’s “Thrive in ‘25.” But while words matter, and the way we communicate our objectives is important, what really stands out is what we, as an industry, do. What I have seen this year is that we have dropped the “Survive to ‘25” mindset and have intentionally moved toward one that aligns with my 2024 proposal—that we instead “Thrive in ‘25.”
While COVID-related PTSD, a staffing crisis, a capital markets collapse, and the everyday stressors of the industry continue to reverberate, I do believe most operators and investors have demonstrated some meaningful wins after many years of combating adversity or explaining away negative outcomes. It is difficult to predict the future, especially in a rapidly evolving market and industry. Factor in the impact of a new administration, and the task is even tougher.
Most anticipate that the administration’s policies should increase deal volume and promote greater innovation as regulations are pared down. I do have concerns over how an increase in tariffs and anti-immigration sentiment could impact inflation and, ultimately, interest rates. More specifically to senior living, I am fearful that the immigration mandates could result in a reduction in the pool of qualified frontline workers committed to caring for seniors. This is one of the greatest risks to our industry, as it will result in cost escalations, staffing shortages, and erosion of quality. Supporting sensible immigration reform needs to be at the forefront of our policy agenda.
I don’t believe we will see much movement in 2025 in ground-up development despite the growing underlying demand or supply imbalances. Deals that are capitalized will likely be reserved for fortress sub-markets with strong underlying demographics that can support revenue per occupied room (RevPOR) of $10,000/month or more. Given the operating cost structure, it’s going to be challenging in AL/MC to achieve target yields. This is a societal issue that needs to be addressed eventually to build a viable model for the middle market. Most existing operators and investors benefit from constrained supply for at least another three years—one year to develop plans and two years to construct.
I believe the greatest change in 2025 will be related to how the industry better adopts technology and how the use cases for AI drive meaningful value creation. In 2025, I expect staffing plans to be based on actual care needs of the residents, care fees to be better optimized based on the actual time required to deliver care, conversations with families to be more data-driven and transparent, and clinical processes to become more effective, leading to less variability in quality.
I predict that entrepreneurs building technologies for senior living will need to deliver a compelling ROI. If not, their solutions will be swapped out, at a higher rate, for solutions that have a track record for delivering on operational and financial needs or that have demonstrated the ability to adapt to the evolving expectations of the industry. There should be some clear winners by the end of 2025.
I also predict that in 2025 we will see the continued integration of healthcare services into the senior living care model. While I believe VBC will take years to play out, if I had to make a bold prediction, it would be that there will be a meaningful policy shift or the development of a pilot program that would incentivize high-needs seniors to reside in a senior living community over other high-cost care settings that are less desirable for the consumer. I expect we will see more mergers or exits from fatigued operators or investors, creating meaningful opportunities for rising stars and for new sources of institutional equity to position themselves to be the next household name. In the end, I am optimistic that those who are patient, committed, and have thoughtful long-term strategies will thrive not just in 2025—but for years to come.
Lastly, I would have never imagined senior living would be featured in a Netflix series in 2024. Ready for my boldest prediction yet? Someone from senior living will be invited to speak on a panel at the 2025 All-In Summit.
Alan Butler, CEO, Erickson Senior Living
For senior living to thrive in 2025, we need to recognize that Baby Boomers are no longer coming—they’re here, enjoying life as active members of our communities, with more moving in every day.
No matter their generational label, seniors are looking to simplify their lives. They want a safe, comfortable place to live, convenient access to high-quality health care, meaningful relationships, and the peace of mind that comes from making a sound financial decision.
At Erickson Senior Living, we have been building on these fundamentals for more than 40 years. We continue to evolve our products and services in response to resident and prospect feedback, but the core of our offering remains the same—the opportunity for seniors to live their best life as part of a community. 2025 will be no different.
For example, we know that Baby Boomers are far more proactive about their health and well-being than previous generations. In response, we have been enhancing fitness spaces indoors and outdoors, with state-of-the-art equipment and in-demand amenities like pickleball and bocce courts. It’s not just physical spaces, though. Enriched programming is also helping residents build connections through shared interests and experiences.
We also continue to evolve our unique medical platform, providing concierge-style services where providers develop a relationship with each resident to understand their personal health needs. In 2025 and beyond, we will continue to expand our home health support so residents can live comfortably in their homes at our communities longer. We are also making modifications to our continuing care neighborhoods to allow couples to remain together as needs change.
Whether it’s offering larger square footage in residences, more variety in dining, including bars and coffee shops, or the next trend in technology, we are focused on remaining agile to meet customer needs.
And the need is great. As we enter a new year, we acknowledge the responsibility to continue growing to address the unprecedented demand ahead of us. Even during the pandemic, we maintained an aggressive growth plan, expanding our footprint with the opening of new communities like Siena Lakes in Naples, Florida; Avery Point in Richmond, Virginia; and Woodleigh Chase in Fairfax, Virginia.
We’re moving ahead with new projects now, too, with the anticipated opening of The Grandview, our first vertical living community in Bethesda, Maryland, in late 2025, and Emerson Lakes in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, in late 2026.
Despite current economic headwinds, Erickson Senior Living has not slowed its pipeline. Instead, we continue to seek opportunities in new markets. Our industry-leading occupancy rate and robust waiting list give us confidence that we are well-positioned to meet the underserved need for quality senior living in the future. In fact, we anticipate adding more than 5,000 residences to our inventory over the next five years.
Additionally, our commitment to continuously reinvesting in existing communities is a major factor in strong resident and employee satisfaction results.
This disciplined approach not only helps meet the demand for our products and services for seniors but also provides career paths for a new generation of team members.
As we head into 2025, it’s clear that this industry faces tremendous opportunity. To make the most of it, we must be proactive about helping people understand the value of senior living—for residents, employees, families, and beyond.
How many times have we heard a resident reflect that they “wish they had moved sooner” because they are thriving in their new lifestyle? We see the positive results of being part of a community each and every day. Far too many seniors continue to stay isolated in their homes. Simply put, people are better off when they move to a quality senior living community.
As an industry leader, we feel an acute responsibility to help people understand these life-changing benefits and bring clarity to outdated misconceptions.
We know that the products and services we offer to seniors provide a pathway to living their best life. What we do matters. Let’s turn the daily good news that we witness into part of the American dialogue in 2025. By taking the initiative, we can bring this incredible lifestyle to more seniors.
Chris Hollister, Co-Founder, CEO and Chair, Pegasus Senior Living
As 2024 comes to a close, we are reminded of the tremendous responsibility and opportunity we have to celebrate and enhance the lives of our residents and employees through senior living.
COVID-19 was the hardest thing most of us have ever been through professionally, and hopefully, ever will. The labor crisis that followed was not as tragic but equally challenging from a business standpoint.
I believe the data and history books will show 2024 as a pivotal year of recovery in the sector. If you attended the sequential NIC Fall Conferences in 2023 and 2024, you would almost feel like you were landing in a separate industry in Fall 2024. The mood in 2023 was bleak, with no one seeing the bottom. This continued for most of the first half of 2024. However, by the third quarter, we began to see green shoots—month-over-month occupancy gains, and we nearly eliminated the use of agency staff in our communities. Clearly, many of our colleagues experienced similar results. By the NIC Fall 2024 Conference, the mood wasn’t quite ebullient, but there was a palpable sense that we had at least moved past the bottom.
We overbuilt senior housing from 2013 to 2019, and then COVID-19 hit. We are still recovering from this historic binge of irrational exuberance, which was ruptured by the worst pandemic in over a century. With rates and construction costs up—potentially for good, with tariffs and mass deportations looming—it is harder than ever to get middle- and even upper-middle-market senior living development projects to pencil out. My hope is that capital providers have finally recognized the special nature of senior living—it is an extremely complex operating model that requires an ever-higher caliber of clinical expertise. It is real estate but so much more, and the clinical and operational collaboration and execution are what create success in this mission-driven field. That only happens if you hire long-standing professionals who understand the nuances and challenges of managing the daily intricacies of senior living. So, new entrants beware of the risks of surfing the silver tsunami.
Yes, demand is growing, but there are always vacancies to fill in key positions, and the operational matrix of challenges will continue. We are just glad to be back on a positive trend and able to focus on ways to deliver on our mission. We believe some of the new fall detection systems show great potential. We are also more focused than ever on hiring the right leaders and finding ways to use dining and life enrichment to further celebrate and enhance the lives of our residents.
Onward in 2025!