Conference Coverage

By Jeff Shaw HOUSTON — Although the seniors housing industry as a whole suffered big setbacks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting record-low occupancy rates across the board, one sub-segment was an exception to the rule. “During COVID there were clear winners and losers in commercial real estate,” said Aron Will, vice chairman of debt and structured finance at CBRE and co-head of CBRE Senior Housing. “Industrial, life sciences, medical office and multifamily were very clear winners. But one asset class that’s been overlooked is active adult, as it was also a very clear winner.” Although there is much discussion around how to define the active adult segment, generally it’s an age-restricted apartment community for physically healthy seniors who don’t yet need the services in independent living such as meal preparation, cleaning or assistance with the activities of daily living. Without temporary government regulations stopping move-ins to active adult communities — plus a younger, healthier resident than in independent living or assisted living — active adult communities thrived during the pandemic. Lease renewal rates were 80 percent; collections were close to 100 percent and the segment experienced “phenomenal rent growth,” according to Will. Will’s comments came during a panel he moderated …

By Taylor Williams ATLANTA — Even before the pandemic struck the United States in early 2020, rising labor costs were putting downward pressure on margins for seniors housing owners and operators. The public health and economic crises stemming from COVID-19 have only amplified the problem, say seniors housing professionals. In an industry where renters overwhelmingly belong to one of the most COVID-19-susceptible demographics, seniors housing operators are now wrestling with the question of whether to require staffers to get vaccinated. At the same time, they are battling widespread wage increases brought on by a labor shortage compounded by the steady flow of federal unemployment benefits. The net result is that both third-party operators and owner-operators of seniors housing properties — from independent living to skilled nursing — are seeing their costs rise. Simultaneously, these groups are also struggling to recoup occupancies and revenues lost to COVID-19. And while labor is not the only operating expense on the rise within the seniors housing space, it’s a unique line item in the sense that it has dual external forces acting upon it. This realization was not lost on a “power panel” of executives who own and operate seniors housing properties and who …

By Taylor Williams As a concept, the term “active adult” supports the notion that age is just a number. As an evolving subcategory of seniors housing, active adult is a property type that means different things to different people. For that reason, designers and builders of this asset class face the unique challenge of visualizing and delivering communities that appeal to a broad range of renter profiles. Effective, consistent branding is one of the biggest challenges within the active adult sector, which is very much in its infancy relative to other commercial property types. As such, it’s critical that these properties, from their ambiances to their amenity packages, have a sense of versatility, a feel of a community in which 30- and 60-year-olds would feel equally at home. The ways and means through which that wide-ranging appeal can be achieved accounted for much of the discussion among a panel of architects, designers and a builder who spoke at the inaugural InterFace Active Adult conference on Aug. 4. Held at the Westin Galleria hotel in Dallas and hosted by Seniors Housing Business and the InterFace Conference Group, two business units of Atlanta-based France Media, the event drew more than 300 attendees …