Sonida Senior Living Ceo: Data Platform ‘central’ To Future Growth Plans 

Senior living operator Sonida Senior Living (NYSE: SNDA) is moving forward with its portfolio transformation with a growing data science platform at the center of those plans.

During the Dallas-based provider’s first-quarter earnings call, CEO Brandon Ribar said the company is entering its “compounding” third phase, which was preceded by phase one focused on survival and phase two focused on stabilization.

In March, Sonida completed its $1.8 billion merger with CNL Healthcare Properties (CHP), creating the eighth-largest senior living owner with more than 153 communities under management. Sonida is integrating the new CHP properties into its portfolio through a multi-phase approach. The company transitioned six properties into its senior housing operating platform (SHOP) and its leaders expect to execute on the second and third phases this summer.

The company’s leaders also touted the rollout of the Sonida Performance Insight Navigator, or SPIN, a data and analytics platform that supports real-time analysis for better staffing operations and margin growth.

Ribar said the SPIN platform combines resident care data, workforce information and operational metrics into a framework that allows community leaders to react more quickly as occupancy and acuity needs rise.

He added that the SPIN platform creates the “framework” for accountability, transparency and insights to improve operating performance in the future without the bureaucratic lag.

The company views SPIN as a foundational operating platform that is still in development, even as Sonida communities use it to improve performance. Data from SPIN is richer and provides more nuance to better equip staff to make daily strategic decisions, Ribar added.

“This foundation is central to our growth strategy and our ability to drive sustainable margin expansion across our growing portfolio,” Ribar said.

The benefits of SPIN include the timeliness of information communities receive and the granularity of the insights, he said. That also extends to identifying ways to improve capturing resident rates.

“We use it not only for acquisitions, but for real-time decision-making for our local and regional leadership teams, and we’ll continue to invest in it,” Ribar said.

In the first-quarter, Sonida and CHP communities generated $108.4 million in combined resident revenue, a 36.7% increase compared with the same period last year. Weighted average occupancy reached 87.2%, an increase of 220 basis points from the same period in 2025. The percentage of communities above 90% occupancy in the first-quarter grew to 52%, up from 39%; while the percentage below 80% occupancy decreased to 20% in the first-quarter, on a same-store basis.

Earlier this week, Sonida completed the transition of six communities onboarded following the CHP acquisition, with an additional 11 communities to be transitioned later this summer, according to the company’s most recent investor presentation.

Ribar said Sonida seeks to “continue growing” by building density in markets and targeting “across-the-board opportunities.”

“We’ve set up the company to be able to continue to purchase as we are integrating the CHP portfolio,” Ribar said. “We are engaging on both fronts.”

Going forward, Ribar said Sonida could continue to acquire at a consistent pace similar to 2024 and 2025 investment activity. Since 2024, Sonida has acquired 92 communities, expanding from 61 communities to 153 today, according to the company’s investor presentation. While competition for senior living mergers and acquisitions has increased since 2024, Ribar said Sonida remains in a position to find new portfolios or smaller acquisitions.

Same-store community net operating income increased 14% compared with the same quarter last year, with NOI margins expanding 170 basis points to 31.2%, based on recent performance indicators across the portfolio.

Sonida is also seeking “bespoke” relationship-driven investment opportunities. For example, Sonida invested capital to support the refinancing of a high-end, full-continuum community in Texas.

“This is the kind of bespoke relationship-driven investment that Sonida is built for, and we will continue to pursue, executing across larger, more complex portfolios that require the right operating performance,” Ribar said.

Coinciding with operating performance, Sonida is working to improve staffing. Late last year, the company rolled out a pay-for-performance structure that incentivized community leaders to improve operating performance. Using SPIN, Sonida leaders measured job productivity. The company also introduced a dashboard of daily staffing key performance indicators, or KPIs, while adding increased oversight and support at lagging communities.

Total labor costs have declined roughly 100 basis points as a percentage of overall revenue compared with 2025 in same-store senior living communities.

On Monday, Sonida stock fell $1.31, a loss of 3.42% in value from the previous day’s trading, to rest at $36.96 per share.

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