American Healthcare Management Builds Portfolio By Turning Around ‘broken’ Communities

Senior living operator American Healthcare Management Group plans to add between six and 10 buildings over the course of the next 24 months, according to Executive Vice President Nick Jasmon.

Founded in 2004, the operator manages eight communities under the Elevate Senior Living brand.

Founded in 2004, the operator manages eight communities under the Elevate Senior Living brand. Earlier this month, the company promoted Jasmon to executive vice president of Elevate Senior Living.

The company is growing via turnaround opportunities for distressed senior living assets. The operator works with multiple capital partners to improve performance and daily operations, with an emphasis on full-continuum communities at a middle-market price point. Jasmon is the son of American Healthcare Management Group co-founder Amy Jasmon and CEO Joe Jasmon.

Jasmon has for about two decades worked in senior living, starting as an intern at a Texas community while in college. Jasmon’s career in senior living stems from a moment meeting an older adult who bonded with him over fond memories..

“After that, I was hooked and I knew I wanted to be involved in senior living somehow,” Jasmon said.

The company’s future growth plans, including adding additional full continuum communities under management, are aimed at building a portfolio that provides middle-market senior living options for older adults during a period of strong senior living demand.

In his time with the company, Jasmon and company leaders have worked to improve occupancy and provide more in-depth programming and lifestyle offerings for residents.

“We go into broken communities, broken assets, and turn them around into functional and high-performing communities,” Jasmon said. “We see big value in being able to be a one-stop shop for seniors that are entering the continuum and we want to have those communities that can support that thesis.”

The company’s leaders are focusing on acquiring communities for its middle-market model, and they believe there is still plenty to buy given the tough conditions for starting new development.

This need to “reinvent” stems from the difficulty in daily operations and community performance on middle-market margins, Jasmon said. The vast need for middle-market options has fueled the company’s pursuit of being a viable and affordable middle-market senior living provider.

“We’re trying to attack this and make sure that everyday Americans can afford senior living when they are ready for it,” Jasmon added.

The company launched the Elevate Senior Living in 2019 with plans to grow the brand further. The company is slated to manage a former Best Western hotel in Orange, California, turned into a senior living community.

Two additional communities in Florida and New Jersey are also under renovation to reposition existing assets, Jasmon noted. The communities the company seeks out typically fall in the Southeast and Midwest, but opportunities have come up to expand in California. The company is also in the process of adding independent living options, including 16 new villas and 110 independent living units.

With no corporate headquarters, American Healthcare Management relies on a hands-on group of leaders to assist communities in turnaround mode, and “a majority” of the company’s leadership time is spent on the road visiting communities and assisting community teams on the front lines of daily operations, Jasmon said.

“We want to be as humble as possible to support the communities as best we can,” Jasmon said. “We’re pretty flexible, and at the end of the day, each of the communities has their own story and unique identity.”

The company is set to onboard new communities over the next six months and continue over the next two years as community renovation projects are completed, Jasmon said.

Balancing multiple capital relationships with ownership groups, American Healthcare Management focuses on understanding each owner’s goals, timeline and desired end result, including the pace of stabilization and setting rates accurately to achieve those goals. That also includes advocating for when communities need to be repositioned or renovated in order to fuel the pace of recovery at a struggling property, Jasmon said.

Jasmon said the company focuses on what it can control from a daily operations perspective, and the company likes to focus on long-term relationships with ownership groups rather than one-off deals.

To accommodate new growth, American Healthcare Management is planning add additional staff and the company will continue to focus operational priorities on sales and marketing, along with daily operations, to spur recovery in communities.

Jasmon, as EVP, will work more closely with staff and daily operations leaders to understand the areas where the operator can improve on a consistent basis. He believes that the first 90 to 120 days in a community are critical for making improvements that spur a turnaround effort with momentum.

While sales, clinical and executive director positions are vital to a community’s turnaround, Jasmon said the company has also branched out to seek nonprofit partnerships to help improve operations. For example, the company has Job Corps staff working in buildings and undergoing training to assist with anything from light caregiving to landscaping. These partnerships have helped reduce burnout and improve employee retention, Jasmon noted.

The company is preparing to bring on a director of sales who will assist communities on a daily basis to drive census growth and outreach, along with an operational leader to assist in the stabilization of the communities under management, Jasmon said.

Going forward, Jasmon said he would be closely watching how the supply and demand of senior living units evolve as new development conditions arise, alongside the need to create more affordable middle-market senior living options for older adults.

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