Senior living construction and renovation have been bumpy in recent years. While there are still some potholes and detours, the ride is smoothing out a bit. In a recent NIC webinar, Meet Senior’s Housing’s Contrarians, some experts in the field shared their thoughts. While they offered some cautionary tales and precautions for the future, they also saw some light at the end of the tunnel. Here are just a few insights:

• Many in the industry have been hunkering down as valuations have been challenged, exit plans have been destroyed, carrying costs of non-cash-flow properties have spiked in 2023 and progressed into 2024, and the hope of a quick drop in interest rates has slowly dissipated. At the same time, some regional banks have increased regulatory requirements and higher interest rate expenses have made obtaining debt more difficult; as a result, we’ve been re-exposed to old terms such as seller financing.

In the ever-evolving landscape of senior living, staying ahead of the curve means more than just offering the best amenities and services; it is also about creating spaces that enhance the quality of life for residents while optimizing property value. It is about bringing new energy, functionality, and life into your community. That is where our

Interior Design Assessment

As part of a panel on innovation in planning and design at Ziegler’s 26th Annual Senior Living Finance and Strategy Conference, Pi President Greg Hunteman, AIA, talked about disruptions shaking things up and how to make the most of challenges while embracing opportunities. “The primary challenges facing senior living are things we’ve been dealing with for a while, including staffing shortages, development costs, and preference changes leaning into active adult living,” Hunteman said. More communities are looking at an active adult/independent living mix that requires less staffing and is easier to finance but offers more opportunities to bring services to residents. Often, independent living mix involves unbundling services so residents can get as much or as little as they want or can afford, Greg noted. We also are seeing greater variety in amenities. For instance, Hunteman said, “We are creating more communities around water-based activities with amenities such as a ferry from the community to an adjacent lakeside town and boat slips and docks available to residents for their boats.”

As Baby Boomers age and start retiring there continues to be a need for senior housing, especially as Gen Xers come into the mix. Construction comes with some challenges and, increasingly, risks. Most strategic projects will involve some degree of risk. The good news is that there are ways to reduce risk and get projects delivered on time and within budget, with 90% occupancy within a year of completion.

A recent report from the McKinsey Health Institute confirms what we’ve been saying about aging and the need to create and reposition senior communities to appeal to this growing population. Findings from a survey of more than 21,000 older adults (those aged 55 and older) showed that these individuals prioritize having a purpose, managing stress, enjoying meaningful connections with others, and maintaining independence.

It is more important than ever to look around and ask, ‘Would working here bring me joy?’ People working in senior and long-term care settings have reported feelings of stress and burnout for years, let's change that! Pi's interior design team can help you reimage your spaces and help bring happiness to your team.

A key goal when designing a garden or outdoor space for people with cognitive impairment is to keep these individuals safe and comfortable. Outdoor areas should meet the resident’s needs for engagement, physical activity, mental stimulation, and fun while still meeting the safeguards of the community. Many outdoor areas are fenced for the resident’s safety, however, using hedges that blend into the environment can create a relaxing space without making the resident feel confined.

Changing trends, some ongoing challenges, and cautious optimism are on the agenda for senior living industry leaders, and Pi’s Greg Hunteman and a panel of experts addressed all of these during “Emerging Trends in Operations, Development, Repositioning,” a Good People Power Talk program.

When you talk to people living with dementia and their families, it is clear that they face numerous challenges. However, there are no easy solutions. It isn’t always desirable to go into a nursing home or even an assisted living facility, and it can be difficult to keep them at home. We can help by creating and promoting design elements that make it safe and comfortable for individuals with dementia and their families wherever they are.

Writer E.M. Forster once said, “What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” That is the essence of why people seek places. By nature, people are attracted to integrating indoor and outdoor spaces, with easy access to biking/walking paths, hiking trails, dog parks, and pools.

A friend once told me about visiting the Jersey Shore as a kid and seeing huge old mansions converted into retirement homes. Every summer, there would be dozens of residents sitting in rocking chairs on the porch, taking in the sites of the bustling beach community. These people, she estimated, were between 60 and 80 years old for the most part. Today, the statistics show that people of this age are doing anything but sitting on the porch; and senior communities need more rock and roll than rocking chairs to appeal to residents.

Master planning is like knowing in advance where all the pieces go before you start the puzzle. More precisely, it is a vision and a road map built from the information and optics of a community’s operations, market needs and standards, and cost realities that must all be harmoniously combined with inspiration.

Make no mistake. While master planning builds on what has and hasn’t worked in the past and uses these to create a strategy and a template for success, this is by no means a rubber stamp or a cookie-cutter approach to design. With master planning, you save the time, money, and challenges involved in trying to reinvent the wheel for every project. However, the wheel remains unique for each building.

Inflation and interest rates remain high, but there are still ways to build without breaking the bank. Reusing successful designs is one solution that can save time and money, but don’t think that means you can’t have a building with its unique look and personality. We sat down with Jeff Mock, Vice President of Clancy & Theys, to talk about how to make use of design standardization and prototypes.