If you have been following the seniors housing construction market in the last couple of years, you probably have noticed that most of the development that has happened has been assisted living, memory care or some combination of the two. So with all of that building, is there any difference in the average cost to build for either acuity? And are developers actually putting money where their mouths are when they talk about their specially designed, technology-rich memory care projects? When comparing average development costs (which are made up of seniors housing new construction projects announced since late 2013, and include both hard and soft costs), stand-alone MC communities did indeed cost about $20,000/unit more than stand-alone AL communities ($226,000 per unit compared to $205,000 per unit, respectively). But what exactly are those differences between building for memory care and for assisted living? And is it worth the extra cost to build, given the higher rents but also higher operating costs? For an in-depth discussion on the development market, our editor Steve Monroe will host a webinar titled, “Investing in the Senior Care Development Market,” this Thursday at 1PM. Listen and participate in the discussion by registering here.
