Senior Living Facility Obsolete? By Jason Punzel
At a certain age, virtually any type property will become obsolete. Thus, at what age is it for Senior Living and Skilled Nursing Facilities? I believe it is more a matter of functionality than age.
In today’s competitive world, a senior living facility that is an older converted Skilled Nursing Facility tend to have challenges in keeping stabilized occupancy. Often times they have shared bathrooms, small one-room units and limited common areas. With lower acuity residents, private bathrooms are a must when marketing a facility. Larger units with multiple rooms that can function as an Independent or Assisted Living unit have great appeal to allow residents to age in a place as additional care becomes necessary.
Skilled Nursing Facilities that have 3 and 4 bed wards (rooms) are very difficult to fill and often times the total bed count needs to be reduced to allow for mostly private or 2 bed rooms. Even if the facility is accepting mostly Medicaid residents, two residents per room tends to be the maximum that is acceptable.
Other facility challenges include long narrow hallways, low ceilings, lack of elevators, and poor lighting. Depending on the structure, these challenges can be very difficult to rectify. While it tends to be the older Skilled Nursing Facilities that were built in the 1960s and 1970s, some Assisted Living Communities built in the 1980s and 1990s can also have a functionally obsolete design and layout.
Conclusion:
If lack of private bathrooms and small rooms are the challenge, sometimes a solution is to focus on higher acuity Assisted Living and/or Memory Care where residents have higher acuity needs and can use a bathroom or kitchen on their own. Unfortunately, there are some communities that have too many design and layout issues to overcome and possibly the best solution is to build a new facility on the existing ground.
To discuss the age, functionality and sale ability of your Senior Living or Skilled Nursing Facility please contact Jason Punzel at 630-858-2501 x 233 or punzel@slibinc.com or Joy Goebbert at 630-858-2501 x 230 or goebbert@slibinc.com.
