Dear Readers, Welcome to our fourth issue of Continuum, the Journal for Seniors Housing and Long Term Care.
The first thing you might notice about this issue is its size - 36 pages. It's our largest endeavor to date, and in some ways our most difficult. Have you ever tried to wrap your arms around a 900-pound gorilla? That's exactly the assignment we took on here with our February issue as we tried to gauge the future of the seniors housing industry.
We found this to be no small task these days. If you stack seniors housing up against other forms of commercial income-producing real estate, you'll find that it has many of the same attributes as the hotel sector from both a segmentation and service orientation. It also has many traits that are similar to those in the apartment industry, where many living environments are clustered together and developers are beginning to recognize the need to add more services to their traditional product mix.
But I continue to believe that the continuum of care that exists in seniors housing is unlike any other form of property ownership or management. Even if you take out the more emotional attachment to place and home, seniors housing must recognize not only various price points to attract and retain residents, it must also be flexible to change with the changing needs of its residents.
Hence the emergence of the assisted living concept in the past few years and the increased notion that developers must now do everything they can to provide services throughout the continuum of care.
Of course, I haven't even touched upon the regulatory aspect of the industry, which is unlike any other real estate type, save perhaps hospitals. The changing nature of federal and state regulations is cause alone for many a hot debate. But when you further muddy the waters with the politicized nature of our world today ...
We chose development and redevelopment as the theme for this issue of Continuum for some pretty sound reasons, including the fact that there is simply a lot of it occurring out there across the country. Is there too much building and too much capital chasing deals? Does the assisted living concept have legs? And what new efficiencies are owners and developers bringing to the party? Let us know what you think.
How to contact us: If you have information you'd like to share with us, please call or write our editorial offices:
Continuum 6151 Powers Ferry Road Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30339-2941
Ben Johnson/Publisher (770) 618-0215
Randy Henry/Associate Editor (770) 618-0221 [email protected]