<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Ben Burke launched Headwaters Group with a plan to develop active adult communities.<\/p>\n
Now, in anticipation of growing demand for senior living, the company is broadening its services to include independent living, assisted living and memory care, and new unit types such as cottages.<\/p>\n
Denver-based Headwaters Group has grown steadily since its 2022 launch, with six communities as of 2026 with more planned in the future. The company now has nine team members, including Mason Baich, director of asset management; and Adam Herrmann, director of investments.<\/p>\n
The company has added four active adult communities since last October in Colorado and Arizona, with active adult giant \u2013 and now independent living operator \u2013 Greystar slated to manage them. <\/p>\n
Burke, a senior living veteran who formerly was president for Anthology Senior Living, is relying on the relationships he\u2019s forged with operators, general contractors and investors to continue fueling the company\u2019s acquisition and development push.<\/p>\n
In 2026, Headwaters is in phase three of four planned since its launch. The company is delivering deals on-schedule and budget while hitting its rent and lease-up benchmarks. <\/p>\n
\u201cPhase one was starting a business, capitalizing it, finding a team, finding the capital partners. Phase two was finding the deals, closing them and starting to construct them,\u201d Burke said. \u201cPhase three is finishing them and getting a proof of concept, lease-up, rent discovery, asset management, and then phase four, rinse and repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Headwaters has three independent living, assisted living and memory care projects slated to break ground later this year or next \u2013 all part of the company\u2019s new acquisition and development program for full-service senior living communities. Headwaters is capitalizing its current growth through JVs with institutional partners and\/or discretionary capital funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve proven is we are a very institutional investment group and developer who can deliver on time,\u201d Burke told Senior Housing News. \u201cIf we can help our friends scale their businesses, that seems like a great win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Burke launched Headwaters, he initially set out to fill an opportunity in active adult. Now, he sees a similar opportunity to partner on and develop full-service senior living communities that include access to a care continuum.<\/p>\n
Now as it was then, Burke and Headwaters are motivated by the value they can provide and what consumers want at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been so little supply of seniors housing, of any type, being added since Covid,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing is capital providers, buyers, coming to the market and saying, \u2018I want to own senior housing,\u2019 and there\u2019s very little to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke said he always wanted to again explore developing full-service senior living communities, he just didn\u2019t know when conditions would allow him to. Now is that time as replacement and acquisition costs trend ever-closer together, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we can deliver for, and we know what people are buying for, and we think that there\u2019s a positive margin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That confidence is reflected in the product offerings Headwaters aims to include with new communities that encompass more services than active adult, and how the new communities are designed. The company is exploring adding cottages or patio homes to properties with other service types. One of its existing properties in Scottsdale, Arizona, has 10 active adult cottages that are nearly sold out in the four months after opening them.<\/p>\n
Active adult properties are susceptible to age- and acuity-creep, according to Burke. That makes a campus setting with appropriately sized units of multiple types more ideal to a company like Headwaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most important things for residents moving into a senior living environment is knowing that they\u2019re not going to have to move again,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a campus setting, having active adult, especially in a patio home or cottage setting, is a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, the company also launched Aspendale, an elevated brand meant to help fulfill demand for active adult communities with upscale amenities like fitness centers, outdoor turf areas, creative arts studios, card rooms, great rooms with kitchens, resort-style pools, dining courtyards and dog parks. Units have energy efficient, stainless-steel appliances, stone countertops, custom closets and private balconies or patios and large windows.<\/p>\n
On the active adult side, Headwaters still is targeting affordability for an \u201cupper-middle-market\u201d clientele \u201cwho\u2019s making a lifestyle choice versus a healthcare or needs-based choice,\u201d said Burke. Landing on a true middle-market price point is tougher for full-service senior living communities as they offer more services and therefore have a much higher overhead of costs to contend with. <\/p>\n
Middle-market price points require scale and \u201cfor a business that can be repeatable and scalable, that upper middle is a pretty good spot,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think there\u2019s a lot of opportunity in it today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Headwaters is about 80% of the way through raising money for a new general partner fund, its second since launching. The fact that investors are happy and are seeking to work again with the company is evidence to Burke that \u201cour relationships are driven by culture.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing that I\u2019ve learned in my career, it\u2019s that you want to work with people who you like and are smart,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have a good culture, you can solve a lot of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four years ago, Ben Burke launched Headwaters Group with a plan to develop active adult communities. Now, in anticipation of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[585],"tags":[3904,10027,10026,10028,10025,10024,3905,10029],"class_list":["post-54035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-active-living","tag-active","tag-adult","tag-expanding","tag-fullservice","tag-group","tag-headwaters","tag-living","tag-senior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbylifeafterretirement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}