GULF COAST 500: Better With Age

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This might be considered the golden age for developers of retirement communities. Land prices and construction costs are as cheap as they have been in a long time, and prospective residents with big bank accounts would rather live in comfortable settings that aren't anything like the nursing homes of prior generations.

Tampa-based Horizon Bay Retirement Living is capitalizing on that trend, posting 28% growth in revenue under management last year, from $378 million in 2008 to $485 million in 2009. It has grown beyond traditional property management into a fully integrated service platform, with a portfolio that includes independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing care and continuing care retirement communities.

The company is in building mode lately as well, with 136 apartment homes for seniors going up in its home city, just west of downtown and south of the University of Tampa. Located at 800 W. Azeele St., Horizon Bay at Hyde Park will be the first retirement community completed in Tampa in more than 20 years.

Hyde Park community amenities will include an Internet cafe, library, fitness center, game room, a pool with a bar, and a lounge area with views of Tampa Bay, the city skyline and the UT minarets.

“This community will be an excellent addition to our ever-growing roster of diverse retirement communities nationwide,” Thilo Best, Horizon Bay chairman and CEO, said in announcing the project last November. “This area has been good to us, and we really wanted to give back to the city of Tampa.”

Established in 2001 in Chicago and relocating to Tampa two years later, Horizon Bay currently manages more than 16,000 senior housing units at 89 communities in 18 states. The majority of these are in Florida, where they will total 23 once the Hyde Park project is finished.

Horizon Bay at Hyde Park will join eight other communities along the Gulf Coast: Horizon Bay and Regency Oaks, both in Clearwater; Pinecrest Place in Largo; Horizon Bay in Lutz; South Point Square in Port Charlotte; Horizon Bay and Waterside Retirement Estates, both in Sarasota; and Bella Vita in Venice.

Prior to starting Horizon Bay, Best was senior vice president of finance for Holiday Retirement Corp., where he evaluated its 46 properties and sold off 22 poor performers. With more than 20 years of senior housing experience, he also assembled a team of industry professionals who worked for other leading companies in retirement living.

Taking the Horizon name from one of the company's well-run properties in Rhode Island, Best began working on ways to maximize revenue from occupied retirement units above the industry average. He sold off 22 underperforming properties while renovating 13 others, and in 2004 he closed the sale-leaseback of Whitehall Real Estate Funds' $562 million portfolio to CNL Retirement Properties.

In January 2007, Horizon Bay's management team took 51% control of the company while the other 49% was acquired by Chartwell Seniors Housing, a Canadian real estate investment trust. After Chartwell bought a 23-property portfolio in May of that same year, Horizon Bay received 30-year management contracts.

In a previous interview with the Business Review, Best expressed confidence in the long-term prospects for retiree housing, noting that the number of Americans reaching the age of 85 would increase by a third over the next five years. He considers 83 a magic number, given that's the average age of a resident in an independent senior facility or assisted living facility.

“In 2010 and forward, we'll be heading for a golden era of senior housing,” Best said. “Demand will take off. When the baby boomers hit 83, then it's off the charts.”

The only drawback, he cautioned, is that many seniors are currently opting to live with their children during the recession. Occupancy levels in senior housing have fallen below the 90% level in recent years.

“It's tougher to get people to move in,” Best said. “People want deals. In the short run, we'll live to fight through another day.”

The premise of Horizon Bay communities is simple — helping residents get through the day, through a variety of recreation and other activities designed to counter spending too much time alone or being mesmerized by television. The company won two national awards earlier this year from the Assisted Living Federation of America for its SMILE (Schedule, Motivate, Invite, Listen and Escort) program and its welcoming program for new residents titled “Your Story Continues Here.”

SMILE is a collaborative effort by staffers to encourage residents to become more engaged in programs and events at their respective facilities. Overall participation has increased, with as many as 70% of the least-engaged residents in one community attending three or more activities in the first week, according to Jim Concotelli, Horizon Bay's vice president of resident programs.

Under “Your Story Continues Here,” new residents are interviewed to find out their interests, and a community orientation and social event is held. Each is assigned a “welcome ambassador” as an escort to first meals and activities.

“You'll have communities that do a great job of it if there's a member of the leadership team that values the new resident experience enough to put the process in place,” Concotelli says. “Without a system in place, things can fall by the wayside.”