Now At ‘fighting Weight,’ Brookdale Senior Living Turns To Offense

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Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) is at its “fighting weight,” and for the first time in a long while, ready to potentially grow again, according to CEO Nick Stengle.

That milestone, reaching the relatively slimmed-down size of 517 communities, marks the end of the Brentwood, Tennessee-based senior living operator’s latest “era” of recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of a new one where the operator is stable and taking a “more offensive posture,” Stengle said.

While Brookdale isn’t looking to get back to the days of rapid expansion a la its previous era of mergers and acquisitions, the company’s new posture and current financial position means it can transact on certain communities in markets where it already operates.

Stengle, who joined the company last October,sees an opportunity to gain geographic density of communities to “own” markets where it has already planted its flag. He views Brookdale’s price point as above middle-market and below luxury senior living, with a value to residents based on care quality and scope of services.

As of its most recent count, Brookdale’s senior living portfolio carried an average occupancy of 82%. In 2026, Brookdale is focused on improving its portfolio further by growing occupancy, aiding staffing and .

“We have a nice structure, and it is about how we can take a more offensive posture in building our business and no longer shrinking,” Stengle told SHN.

Brookdale turns to offense

Stengle sees two distinct eras in Brookdale’s past before its current one.

The first was marked by growth through acquisitions, in which the company became the largest senior living operator in the sector thanks to its mega-merger with Emeritus. In the years that followed, Brookdale began to shrink, offloading underwater leases that were “bleeding cash,” former CEO Cindy Baier once said. Brookdale in this period operated communities “in the most random places,” amounting to a “mismatch” of services or locations versus where the company was heading, Stengle said. The company also had multiple “legacy leases that were hard to unwind” during this period.

Then, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, sending Brookdale’s – and many other operators’ – occupancy downward. Brookdale made a series of moves to “continue paying the bills,” including selling off its hospice and home health business to HCA Healthcare for $400 million. along with renegotiating leases with real estate investment trust (REIT) partners, like Ventas (NYSE: VTR). Last year, Brookdale and Ventas restructured a master lease under which Brookdale agreed to continue managing 65 communities out of a 120-community portfolio.

Now, Brookdale has turned from playing defense to offense. The company is again considering growth via “very targeted and deliberate” acquisition opportunities where it already operates, Stengle said. The company’s perfect, “unicorn community” is located within a market in which Brookdale currently operates and is able to help fill voids in regional density.

“The ideal scenario is one of a small, mom-and-pop, single-community operator,” Stengle said. “Ideally, it’s fairly lower-occupied – 50%, 60%, 70% – and we can lean in with our critical mass, our sales expertise and our knowledge of the market, and fill that building up.”

As he looks at potential growth opportunities, Stengle is keeping history close at hand. Brookdale is mitigating the downsides of being the largest senior living operator in the U.S. by splitting its portfolio into six regions that act as distinct operating companies.

The operator’s goal is to substantially become the biggest and best option in the markets where it chooses to operate. Stengle is careful to note that, although Brookdale is the nation’s largest operator of communities, it also is the third-largest owner of senior living communities in the U.S., owning about three-fourths of the communities it manages.

In 2025, Brookdale invested $171 million in capital expenditures for projects. This year, Brookdale plans to invest $175 million and $195 million in CapEx dollars to refresh its communities.

But at the end of the day, Stengle believes that Brookdale will differentiate itself not on the look of its communities but on the quality of its care.

“We want to provide amazing care, specifically the assisted living and memory care side of the equation,” he said.

High construction and financing costs have stymied Brookdale’s and other companies’ ability to grow via new development. As such, Stengle doesn’t see the company inking new development or construction deals any time soon.

Improving portfolio

Brookdale’s senior living portfolio is on an upward trajectory in 2026 with regard to occupancy and margins. The company is accelerating those improvements by doubling down on functions like HealthPlus, which aims to keep residents well through care coordination and other services.

Brookdale frequently cites NIC MAP data showing demand for senior housing is expected to exceed supply by over 100,000 units by next year. By 2035, the data shows that the “supply gap” expands to 400,000 units.

Brookdale’s cost of staffing, buildings, utilities and core services don’t increase much as it gains occupancy, and thus the company and its leaders believe that more occupancy gains resulting from supply-demand imbalances will help the operator generate “significantly more operating income per unit on average,” reads a 4Q25 supplemental disclosure. Increasing occupancy in roughly 13,000 of the operator’s owned units to over 80% would “generate significantly higher operating income.”

“It’s a balance,” Stengle said. “Get the rate right, grow the occupancy and margin will expand naturally, all while maintaining the right service level.”

Brookdale’s clinical care expertise and lifestyle engagement platforms are the bedrock of the company’s value proposition. Since 2023, Brookdale has grown its HealthPlus program geared toward improving care coordination and care service delivery to those with higher acuity needs living in Brookdale communities.

At the same time, Brookdale launched its EngagementPlus platform directed at improving programming to be a more personalized resident engagement platform to combat loneliness in older adults making the move to senior living.

Both platforms are tools that Brookdale can use to attract new residents and their family members, finding “real value” in coordinated and personalized services. These programs have led to improved sales conversions, from tour-to-move-in, because families and prospects “connect the dots” for choosing to make the transition to a Brookdale community, Stengle said.

Through the HealthPlus program, improved health outcomes are possible as the personalized care services help track changes in resident acuity and ultimately lead to fewer move-outs due to illness, Stengle said.

“You’re able to underpin overall occupancy growth,” Stengle said. “The residents appreciate having this additional layer of support.”

In early May, Brookdale offered HealthPlus at 180 of the company’s 517 communities, and the rollout is expected to continue in 2026. Later this year, rollout will continue for HealthPlus to fill in the gaps of the portfolio, Stengle said. That means going back and “cleaning up” markets previously left out of the HealthPlus rollout.

The HealthPlus program fits squarely within the confines of value-based care, as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to have all Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in accountable care organizations (ACOs) through Medicare Advantage plans by 2030.

“We’re leaning into the value-based side of this where we want to find partners, and we believe us having critical mass in a region matches nicely with finding a value-based partner in the form of an ACO or [Managed Security Service Provider] MSSP that also has geographic critical mass and we can merge the two together,” Stengle said.

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