Senior living is experiencing a renaissance. Gone are the days of bleak, institutional nursing homes with cookie-cutter living quarters. In their place is a new wave of vibrant, experience-driven communities that gives discerning seniors the freedom to choose the lifestyle they prefer while accessing appropriate levels of support at a price they can afford.
This evolution is improving seniors’ quality of life while at the same creating compelling investment opportunities. This is particularly true in strategically tiered senior living communities that mirror the brand segmentation found in the hospitality industry.
For investors managing diversified portfolios, a tiered approach to senior living offers distinct advantages over single-brand strategies. Strategic tiering allows investors to spread risk across different market segments, create multiple price points for entry, and capture a broader range of resident demographics — all while benefiting from the sector’s strong fundamentals.
This portfolio approach transforms what might otherwise be a monolithic investment into a sophisticated, diversified strategy within a single asset class.
The hospitality approach to senior living
The most sophisticated senior living developers are borrowing from the hospitality industry’s playbook and creating distinct brands to serve market segments and resident preferences.
This parallels the ways in which major hotel chains segment their offerings. Just as Marriott operates different hotel brands to capture distinct customer segments, modern senior living developers create tiered offerings to address varying resident preferences and price points.
One key difference between hospitality and senior living: As a needs-based asset with higher demand than supply, senior living has historically limited consumer choice (think institutional nursing homes). Today, nearly half of existing senior living housing stock is outdated and aging, which means demand will continue to outpace supply.
This is part of what makes amenity-rich senior living communities so appealing — they give seniors the simple luxury of choice. Tiered brands take that concept a step further by creating an even wider range of options tailored to meet the unique needs and preferences of specific markets.
NexCore’s tiered brand strategy
NexCore has established three complementary brands — Sancerre, Gallery, and Reserve — with each one tailored to suit specific market profiles and resident expectations. Together, these distinct brands allow us to create multiple investment opportunities within and across markets throughout the United States.
All three brands are exclusively run by NexCore’s wholly owned operating company, Experience Senior Living (ESL). Rather than relying on a collection of third-party operators, this “captive” operational structure ensures we can deliver consistent quality, seamless communication, increased operational efficiencies, and aligned incentives — ultimately enhancing investment returns across our entire portfolio.
The Reserve
Representing the premium tier, Reserve communities are strategically located in walkable, mixed-use urban developments in primary markets like Washington, D.C.’s West Falls development in Falls Church, Virginia, or Denver’s RidgeGate development in Lone Tree, Colorado.
Reserve communities feature high-end designs, with an emphasis on private living spaces and in-unit features. They attract a younger resident profile (averaging 79 years old compared to 85-86 in other communities) who want a high-quality, private home where they can maintain independence while benefiting from supportive services.
We select our Reserve community sites with urban connectivity and cultural amenities in mind. They often connect to metro lines and cultural venues, offering active residents multiple dining options and extensive opportunities to engage with their communities.
Gallery
Located in suburban pockets of major metropolitan areas, Gallery communities provide a full continuum of care from independent and assisted living to memory care.
The Gallery brand draws its name from its emphasis on local art and culture, often featuring the work of regional artists throughout the community. Gallery residents typically prioritize amenity-rich environments with a focus on shared spaces such as libraries, creative workshops, and social lounges.
These residents seek a social and cultural environment with modern amenities and enriching experiences.
Sancerre
Positioned in secondary and tertiary markets, Sancerre communities focus primarily on assisted living and memory care in intimate, comfortable settings. These communities foster close-knit relationships among residents who typically value familiar environments and personal connections.
The resident persona gravitates toward practical, functional layouts with gathering spaces designed for social interaction. Sancerre residents often come from the same area and, having owned a single primary residence, are looking for a comfortable, familiar community where they can connect with people they relate to.
Community-market alignment: The self-reinforcing value of tiered brands
It’s crucial to note that each of NexCore’s three senior living brands offers residents a range of housing at various price points. Rather than differentiating our brands according to stark financial stratifications, each brand’s values align with regional market conditions.
This is because each brand naturally attracts residents with a specific set of shared values and preferences. Residents reinforce a brand’s value as they gravitate toward communities that reflect their life perspectives and values. At the same time, each brand’s distinct physical environment and suite of services reinforce residents’ preferences, creating a virtuous and self-perpetuating cycle. Geographic and cultural context further shape preferences for specific brands, ensuring each development fits seamlessly within its local market.
In this context, each brand remains necessary and distinct despite the fact that residents across brands are ultimately more alike in their motivations — the desire to maintain their quality of life, find meaningful community, and remain active — than they are different.
A data-driven approach to market selection
Successful investment in senior living requires more than an understanding of resident preferences — it demands strategically selecting growth-oriented markets with strong fundamentals.
The most promising senior living markets demonstrate several key characteristics, including:
- Growing senior populations
- Substantial wealth concentration
- Strong occupancy trends
- Aging competitive supply
For instance, Boston, Baltimore, and Tampa currently rank among the highest occupancy markets nationwide, making them particularly attractive for development.
NexCore’s development in the Mid-Atlantic region offers an instructive example of how we use strategic market tiering. We have established a Sancerre community in Richmond (a secondary market), Gallery communities in suburban Baltimore (a primary market), and Reserve communities in urban locations like Falls Church and North Bethesda near Washington DC.
Developing tiers regionally means we can spread our investment across multiple market types while maintaining geographic concentration for operational efficiency. Importantly, we selected each of the above locations based on data showing growing senior populations and wealth concentration in these areas.
For investors, this means multiple entry points for investment while addressing diverse market needs.
Investment advantages of NexCore’s tiered approach
NexCore’s tiered approach to senior living offers several compelling investment advantages.
1. Meaningful portfolio diversification
Rather than concentrating capital in a single market or property type, investors can spread risk across different geographic areas, resident profiles, and price points. Doing so provides a risk-reducing buffer against economic fluctuations that might disproportionately impact a particular segment.
For example, an investor who is interested in the Mid-Atlantic region might choose to balance investments across suburban Gallery communities in Baltimore and urban Reserve properties in Washington DC, creating a regionally concentrated yet demographically diverse portfolio.
2. Consistent performance
Senior living has demonstrated remarkable performance consistency, including twelve consecutive quarters of growth. Data from the National Investment Center shows that senior housing has outperformed most other real estate sectors in annualized returns from 2006-2023, second only to storage and industrial properties over this extended period. Despite temporary setbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector has shown remarkable resilience. Tiered brand offerings add yet another layer of security to what is already an incredibly stable asset class.
3. Consistent demand
Finally, the needs-based nature of senior housing creates consistent demand regardless of economic conditions. Everyone ages, and the longstanding demographic trend toward a graying population continues to accelerate. By 2030, all baby boomers will be at least 65, representing over 20% of the U.S. population and controlling 30-40% of the nation’s wealth. NexCore’s data-driven selection process ensures communities are positioned in places where wealth is concentrated, maximizing investment potential.
Furthermore, the tiered model addresses a fundamental market reality: The majority of existing senior housing stock is aging and functionally obsolete. Today’s seniors — particularly baby boomers — expect larger living spaces, multiple dining options, extensive amenities, and locations near their adult children. NexCore’s modern communities meet these expectations far better than aging housing stock, with each brand specifically designed around the lifestyle priorities of its residents.
4. Investment flexibility
Tiered senior living offers substantial flexibility for investors, offering the ability to invest in specific regions, particular brands, or across a diversified portfolio of communities.
For instance, you could choose to focus on high-growth secondary markets through Sancerre communities, urban infill opportunities through Reserve properties, or take advantage of the suburban migration in primary markets through Gallery developments. Each approach carries different risk-reward profiles while maintaining the sector’s overall demographic advantages.
Looking forward: NexCore’s market-driven approach
Senior living’s investment potential continues to strengthen as demographic trends accelerate. As traditional “core” asset classes like office and multifamily face unprecedented disruption, senior living has steadily moved from an “alternative” investment to a cornerstone opportunity.
NexCore’s tiered family of senior living brands offers a compelling entry point to senior living investment — one that combines the stability of needs-based demand with the growth potential of an evolving market and the risk reduction of a healthy, diversified portfolio. Interested in learning more about how you can partner with NexCore to evolve your investment strategy? Let’s talk.