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Conference CoverageFeaturesMultifamilySeniors Housing

InterFace Panel: Seniors Housing Operators Must Embrace Healthcare-Based Models

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams ATLANTA — Seniors housing has long been established as a viable property type within the spectrum of commercial real estate investment, and at the institutional level, major seniors housing owners oftentimes happen to be major healthcare owners as well. The pairing is only logical. Seniors tend to require disproportionate amounts of healthcare resources, which is why ideal sites for their residential facilities tend to have proximity to hospitals. It also explains why the staffers who make these facilities run often have medical training backgrounds. Therefore, to continue to evolve as an asset class and investment proposition, it follows that seniors housing owners must, from top to bottom, deepen their embrace of healthcare technologies and operating philosophies within their properties. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. At the InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast conference in Atlanta in late August, several panelists representing prominent owner-operators encouraged a crowd of 400-plus attendees at the Westin Buckhead Hotel to do just that. Incorporating both tangible and intangible features of pure-play healthcare properties and operations reflects an …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaSeniors HousingSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Technology Can Complement — But Never Replace — The Human Touch in Seniors Housing Communities, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

ATLANTA — Though the older population is often seen as removed from modern technology, tech products offer great promise to the seniors housing sector. Participants in the “Technology Revolution: Enhancing Resident Care and Operational Cost Effectiveness” panel at the InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast conference (held recently in Atlanta) all agreed on this point. Importantly though, the panel — which was moderated by Mark Petty, vice president of corporate accounts with ICON — also highlighted the fact that seniors housing is an industry rooted in human interaction. Given this fact, the panelists concluded that technology can complement and enhance, but never replace, the human touch. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Three Questions A strategic approach in the purchase and application of technology within seniors housing communities is paramount, pointed out Joe Jasmon, CEO and managing partner of American Healthcare Management Group. In addition to being highly helpful, the products offered by tech companies can be costly. “To have tech just to have tech is really a waste of time, effort and money,” asserted Jasmon. …

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Conference CoverageMarket ReportsRetailTexasTexas Market Reports

InterFace Panel: Unanchored Strip Centers Make Good Opportunities for Retail Developers in Today’s Market

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams DALLAS — It’s an exceptionally challenging time to be developing retail space in the metroplex. Pick your poison: Interest rates that have tripled in two years, restricted proceeds from lenders, longer entitlement and permitting times, limited land for new projects. Between all these barriers to growth, the deck is seemingly stacked against brick-and-mortar retail developers these days, despite the fact that in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), occupancy is very high and population growth shows little sign of slowing. Of course, each of those factors is exacerbated with large-scale developments. More land and rentable square footage require the raising of more debt and equity, which translates to heftier interest and dividend payments, respectively. If the site is an assemblage, then predevelopment is more time-consuming, and with the push outward to new suburban paths of growth, those sites may not already be zoned for retail. If rents aren’t trending upward, those factors alone can kill a project in its infancy. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. For all these reasons, some owner-operators see opportunity in building smaller …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaSeniors HousingSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Expect Seniors Housing Liquidity Issues to Persist Into 2025, Says InterFace Panel

by John Nelson

As a bridge lender across the full spectrum of seniors housing, Live Oak Bank has been able to capitalize on the limited liquidity in today’s market that has resulted in stalled transactions and refinancing challenges in this niche property sector.  “Trust me, I have a certain advantage right now with the lack of lenders [active in the space], and I enjoy that because it enables me to be very strategic on relationships and the people that I choose to partner with and grow. But having liquidity back in our market is necessary for a healthy seniors sector,” believes Chad Borst, managing director of seniors housing at Live Oak Bank, headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Borst would like to see banks that moved to the sidelines in recent years due to the disruption in the capital markets return to the playing field. “I want the permanent financing market to open up more broadly. I want other banks to come back because it will help the overall health of our …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaMultifamilySeniors HousingSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Promote from Within or Hire from Outside? Employee Retention Is Top of Mind for Seniors Housing Operators, Says InterFace Panel    

by Kristin Harlow

ATLANTA — Staffing, particularly at the regional director level, kicked off the discussion at the “Best in Class Operators’ Blueprints for Success in a Challenging Market” panel at the 11th annual InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast conference on Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Atlanta. Pilar Carvajal, founder and CEO of Innovation Senior Living, said her firm is focused on developing from within and rewarding those who have worked hard for the company. “We are keeping a very close focus internally. We think that’s where we will find our talent as we grow,” said Carvajal. Examples include developing the resident care director into an executive director or the executive director into a senior executive director who oversees more than one property. Joining Carvajal on the panel were Lindsey Hacker, executive vice president and CFO of Distinctive Living; Kristin Kutac Ward, co-CEO of AgeWell Solvere Living; Lou Maranto, senior vice president of sales for Discovery Senior Living; and Todd Filippone, president of SRI Management. Charles Mann, chief sales officer and co-founder of Accushield, a provider of security and entry management software for the industry, moderated the discussion. InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media, hosted the event at the Westin Buckhead. “We’re constantly looking …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesIndustrial

Industrial Developers Need Incentives in Today’s Market, Say InterFace Panelists

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams The meteoric rise of industrial real estate over the past decade will forever stand as one of the remarkable growth stories in the annals of commercial real estate, a quasi-rags-to-riches tale of an asset class that has become a preferred use for highly valuable sites and penetrated the portfolios of institutional-grade investors around the country. But after surging to all-time highs in the immediate post-COVID era, industrial rents have moderated in most major markets. Slowing rent growth has coincided almost perfectly with interest rate hikes, all while land and construction costs have continued to do what they always do: go up. For these reasons, industrial developers, who still overwhelmingly build on spec, tend to need a little more help these days than they did in recent years. Or in some cases, these developers may be perfectly well-capitalized to acquire land, secure financing and deliver buildings, but simply aren’t motivated to do so in the current financial environment. Enter incentives — of both the tangible and intangible variety — as the missing link that could mean the difference between a project being shelved or delayed and being executed. Incentives can take many forms, from tax breaks granted by …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaSeniors HousingSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Careful Balance of Business Fundamentals, Quality Care Is Key to Seniors Housing Success, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

By John Nelson Seniors housing is a sector that has a long track record of carefully balancing care for its residents with the fundamentals of real estate, namely the return on investment in the form of monthly rental rates. Equity and debt partners have appreciated the sector as an investment vehicle for decades, but are now fully grasping how important operators are to realizing those gains. This was the topic of discussion among the “power panel” of executives at InterFace Seniors Southeast, an annual conference that was held at Westin Buckhead Atlanta on Wednesday, Aug. 28. Panelists were asked by moderator John Lariccia, CEO and founder of WelcomeHome Software, to summarize the state of the seniors housing industry in a single word. Doug Schiffer, president and chief operating officer of Allegro Senior Living, selected “encouraged” as the best term to describe the current mood of the sector. “The encouragement comes into the fact that both versions of capital, whether it was equity or debt, have actually recognized now the importance of the operator,” said Schiffer. “For quite some time, it was about the importance of the real estate and how the buildings were designed, and then ‘we’ll go find an …

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Build-to-RentConference CoverageFeaturesMultifamilyNorth CarolinaSingle-Family RentalSouth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Build-to-Rent Sector Remains in a Sweet Spot, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Build-to-rent (BTR), or purpose-built neighborhoods of single-family rental homes, has been an emerging subsector of the multifamily continuum the past several years. The housing type fills a niche for renters as it offers more living space and privacy than typical apartments, but is more affordable and amenitized than for-sale homes. The BTR sector began its ascent during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic when a confluence of factors —the rise in work-from-home and hybrid work schedules, an increase in household formation of younger millennials, the desirability of more private space including garages and backyards — led to a sharp increase in demand for single-family rental (SFR) homes. Underpinning the increased demand for BTR living is the unaffordability of homeownership for a large swath of Americans. As of mid-year, home prices are now 47 percent higher than they were in early 2020, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Home insurance premiums have also risen aggressively in the recent past — up 21 percent between 2022 and 2023, according to the study. Meanwhile, mortgage payments are increasingly untenable as interest rates have also risen dramatically in recent years. For these reasons, institutional investors are actively participating …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesMultifamilyNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Feature Archive

Multifamily Investors Need to Capitalize on ‘Golden Window’ to Buy Below Replacement Cost, Say InterFace Panelists

by John Nelson

The method to buy below replacement cost is a tried-and-true investment strategy among real estate investors that allows them to capitalize on short-term fluctuations in the market in order to lock in long-term value. Grant Russell, director of investments at AvalonBay Communities Inc., said that multifamily investors today are in a “golden window” because they can acquire a Class A property for less than what it costs to develop the same community from the ground-up, all things being held equal. “Deals are trading for higher than yesterday’s costs and below today’s costs; these are win-win transactions,” added Russell. “If a developer capitalized the deal a few years ago then they’re selling for a profit, and the buyer is able to acquire these deals for below today’s costs.” These win-win deals are becoming few and far between in today’s environment of elevated interest rates. While buyers are seeking strong yields in their investments, sellers are seeking profitability, and the middle ground has become narrower as those two motivations don’t overlap as often, especially compared to 24 to 36 months ago when interest rates were at historic lows. “In 2021-2022, properties were trading like commodities to some extent — they were two-year …

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Conference CoverageFeaturesMultifamily

InterFace Panel: When It Comes to Amenities in Today’s Multifamily Market, Sometimes Less Is More

by Taylor Williams

By Taylor Williams Within the world of multifamily development, the “amenities arms race” has become a well-documented trend over the past decade, a contest to curate and deliver the most appealing combination of entertainment and wellness features and activities to woo prospective renters. In many instances, this approach was successful, and developers succeeded in capturing the hearts and wallets of renters who sought an “everything under one roof” approach to renting. The fervent movement to deliver more extensive and impressive amenity packages also worked for much of the last decade because interest rates were dirt cheap, even though costs of materials and labor needed to install these features were perpetually on the rise. But today’s market is different. Developers not only face stubbornly high construction costs, but also significantly higher interest rates. Spreads on construction loans in particular tend to be higher than on permanent loans simply because this phase of the project life cycle carries the most risk. Unlike with other asset classes such as retail and industrial, where preleasing is often a prerequisite to securing construction debt, it’s exceedingly rare for renters to commit to units that are still two-plus years away from being delivered. The absence of …

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