NIC Chats

Benchmark Senior Living CEO, founder, and chairman Tom Grape joins host Lisa McCracken to reflect on nearly four decades in senior housing and what the sector needs to get right next. Grape discusses how the sector has matured, from the growth of assisted living and memory care to better data, and where gaps remain, especially in consumer research and the potential for true customer segmentation. The conversation also covers: Why capital and operator alignment has the opport...

In this third episode of NIC's Active Adult podcast series, Christine Tarras, Director of Client Services at Greystar joins host Caroline Clapp to share insights on how operators can build resident programming that drives both satisfaction and NOI. Tarras draws on Greystar's experience as the largest active adult operator to explain the mindset shift multifamily operators need to make when entering the sector, from longer pre-leasing timelines to a deeper understanding of resident psych...

As part of NIC's Active Adult podcast series, host Caroline Clapp sits down with Kimberly Byrum, Managing Principal, Multifamily, at Zonda Advisory Group, to share insights on how developers and investors can use data to identify the right markets and product for active adult rental communities. Byrum draws on Zonda's market study work to explain how demand sizing for active adult differs from conventional multifamily — shifting from jobs-driven econometric models to a more demographic-driven...

In this first episode in NIC's Active Adult podcast series, host Caroline Clapp sits down with Ben Burke, Managing Partner of Headwaters Group, a Denver-based developer and operator of active adult 55+ rental communities, to share insights on why active adult has become one of the most compelling investment theses in real estate today. Burke draws on his background in traditional senior housing to explain what sets active adult apart — a hybrid model with senior-living-style resident engageme...

Host Lisa McCracken sits down with Julie Robinson and Andrew Wantoch of Clarion Partners — a roughly $70 billion private investment manager — to talk about their growing commitment to senior housing. The duo shares how Clarion approaches the sector with intention: from market-level labor analysis and purpose-built, private-pay asset selection to the "yellow flag" philosophy that guides their operator diligence process. The conversation gets candid on what true capital-operator alignment looks...