Thank Wayne Kaplan
Offering free meals to federal workers without a paycheck is the way to go. For all of you who have descended on Los Angeles for the annual ASHA meeting this week, please thank Wayne Kaplan of Premier Senior Living for their generosity, and smarts. At the company’s 23 assisted living and memory care communities located in six states, they have been offering federal workers going without a paycheck free meals at their communities. It can be breakfast, lunch and dinner. While we don’t know how many people took them up on this offer, think of the goodwill it will generate across their locations, especially when the word gets out. We are making the assumption, of course, that the food is good.... Read More »
What Did the Experts Say on Seniors Housing’s Occupancy Woes?
Occupancy issues have spared few senior living operators in the past year, and signs are not good for the next year either. An overactive development market and declining absorption rate made for a relatively abysmal year for census figures in seniors housing and care. With that increased competition, sales and marketing are even more crucial to the success of every community. New communities have to fill their units without the aid of resident reviews and an established local reputation. Older communities have to convince seniors why their communities are better than the shiny new competitor down the street. But how do you reach those potential residents? How do train your sales staff to... Read More »
The Good and the Bad of NIC’s Latest Occupancy Numbers
Fourth quarter occupancy may have been flat, but it is sure to decline in the early part of this year. We need to find new ways to deal with it. What great timing, with NIC’s occupancy and construction numbers just released for the fourth quarter, given our webinar tomorrow. Here’s the good news. Occupancy was stable in the fourth quarter, and new construction as a share of existing inventory, while still high at 6.0%, is 130 basis points off its recent high in the fourth quarter of 2017. And, at long last we seem to be reaching equilibrium between new supply and demand. The bad news is that assisted living occupancy is still low at 85.4%, and while unchanged from the third quarter, was... Read More »
Capital Senior Living’s New CEO
The day after it was announced that Kim Lody had been appointed as the new CEO of Capital Senior Living, we had the opportunity for a little one on one with her. Since she has been a director for the past four years, she was obviously well versed in the company’s issues and opportunities. But when asked why shareholders should be confident in her moving forward as CEO when she was a director during the largest collapse in shareholder value ever for the company, she had a decent response: “I wasn’t the CEO, so I had limited influence.” Well, now she is, and the buck will stop with her. The good news for shareholders is that she has a very strong background in sales and marketing, which is... Read More »
