Sunday, April 28, 2024
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Industry Voices

DevelopmentIndustry Voices

Flexible Design Helps You Adjust on the Fly

by Jeff Shaw

Developers rethink strategies to manage larger economic headwinds. By Dan King With today’s soaring construction costs, rising inflation and endless supply chain disruptions, developers are more mindful than ever before about project design, efficiency and affordability in senior living. In our current economic landscape, developers are rethinking everything from room sizes to how they use shared spaces to solve some of the biggest problems currently facing construction and design. To keep senior living projects moving forward through a down economic cycle, we as architects and designers are constantly working with …

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Industry Voices

The SHB Interview: Edwin Funes, The Arbor Company

by Jeff Shaw

Young gun works his way up from dining room server to executive, winning an Argentum Senior Living Community Leadership Award along the way. By Jeff Shaw Edwin Funes started young, but you could’ve guessed that by the fact that he’s a 35-year-old taking on a regional director role for The Arbor Company. Arbor operates 45 communities in the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and Texas. In his new role, Funes oversees seven of the Mid-Atlantic properties as regional vice president of resident care.  He earned the promotion soon after winning the 2023 …

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DevelopmentIndustry VoicesTechnology

We Must Create Active Adult Environments within Senior Living Communities

by Jeff Shaw

By Jason Erdahl, principal, director of senior communities, Ankrom Moisan  Nursing and residential care facilities lost more than 145,000 workers over the last two years, according to the National Center for Assisted Living. Between staff shortages and increased budgetary concerns for staffing in the senior care market, a solution is necessary to support the growing aging population.  While staff members are still very much needed to assist those residing in these facilities, architects and designers can answer the call for help by creating spaces that aid residents in doing daily tasks on …

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Industry VoicesLegal IssuesPeople

Measuring Labor Productivity Can Lead to Powerful Insights

by Jeff Shaw

By Dan Lindberg, founder and principal, Applied Economic Insight Labor shortages took center stage for business leaders and economists across many sectors of the economy during the Great Resignation toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Such shortages, however, are nothing new for seniors housing and care providers. While required staffing ratios and regulations add to this, at heart seniors housing is an operationally intensive business. It takes people to serve people.  That said, labor is a two-sided coin. On the first side, we have staffing levels measured in terms …

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DevelopmentIndustry Voices

Seniors Housing Demands a Communal, Active, Amenity-Driven Model

by Jeff Shaw

By Kimberly Hellekson and Ken Linehan, FK Architecture The clock on advancing the cause of assisted senior living is ticking — quite loudly.  By 2050, an astonishing one-fifth of the American population will be over 65 years of age, according to Statista. That percentage translates into some 30 million people who will require some form of long-term senior care, up from less than 10 million today. Currently, there are not enough seniors housing units to accommodate this need. We are living longer, and as the birthrate in the United States continues …

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DevelopmentIndustry Voices

Adaptive Reuse Projects Present Massive Untapped Opportunity for Developers

by Jeff Shaw

By James Kraft, Kraft Development The last time I appeared in this section in 2016, I complained in my article Developers Wasting Good Real Estate With Bad Design that same-old buildings were being replaced by same-old buildings with few new communities which I would be interested in moving into as I get closer to retirement. Now, at 66 years old, I will voice those same complaints.  Considering that I have personally been responsible for the “dirt” sitting under more than 12,000 mostly seniors housing units, I hope my voice is finally listened …

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Industry VoicesOperations

Art is a Necessity, Not a Luxury

by Jeff Shaw

Well-thought-out art can improve resident health and increase property reputation. By Rochelle Mills As the president and CEO of Innovative Housing Opportunities (IHO), a developer of affordable and permanent-subsidized housing, I’m passionate about the beneficial role that art can play in uplifting the communities in multifamily housing developments, especially seniors housing.  When I joined IHO in 2006, then-board president Mary Watson-Bruce, a Ph.D. in geriatrics, emphasized to me the importance of the arts on well-being, mental health, sense of calm, blood pressure and more for the senior population. At the …

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Industry VoicesOperations

The SHB Interview: Caryl Ridgeway, CEO, Milestone Retirement Communities

by Jeff Shaw

From baking to disaster relief, a diverse background and passion for senior care informs this operator’s decisions. By Jeff Shaw To say that Caryl Ridgeway has a diverse background, or that she got an early start on her career, would be an understatement. Currently the CEO of Milestone Retirement Communities, a Vancouver, Washington-based operator founded in 2008, Ridgeway became a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at age 15. She was inspired by her visits to the local nursing home in Oklahoma City with her grandmother. That same grandmother also inspired Ridgeway’s …

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Industry Voices

Question of the Month: New Opportunities

by Jeff Shaw

With so much disruption, where are the best opportunities for savvy seniors housing owners and operators? Keep your head down By Michael Hartman Principal, Active Living Capitol Seniors Housing The challenges facing development in seniors housing are largely the result of two factors that sit outside the normal supply/demand fundamentals that dictate the health of the sector: capital markets dislocation and construction cost inflation.  While rents are higher across the board, they haven’t risen enough to compensate for the increase in construction costs. Eventually, the symptoms that caused the broader …

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DevelopmentIndustry Voices

Meet Evolving Demands of Residents, Staff with Mixed-Use Integration

by Jeff Shaw

By Ray Yancey and Janice Sanada, LRS Architects The seniors housing industry is constantly evolving to meet the needs of residents. The baby boomer generation is quickly becoming the largest demographic of the seniors housing community, and their demands significantly differ from their predecessors. Whereas previous generations embraced designs where seniors housing communities were isolated from the broader community, baby boomers desire a melding of suburban and urban elements, such as entertainment venues, restaurants, professional business services and retail spaces. They also want these amenities to be closer. Blending these …

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