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As lending remains tough, senior living operators are forming new relationships with family office investment groups to secure additional growth capital in 2025.
Family office investment in senior living is not the norm in the industry, but as acquisition opportunities remain plentiful and development remains stalled, providers are building these unique relationships to help fuel their next chapter of expansion.
These private investment groups are often difficult to find, and it can be difficult to build relationships, or even educate family offices on the dynamics of senior living properties and operations, according to Avenue Development Co-Founder Mike Mattingly.
“But when you find one and they love senior living as much as you do, it’s like a match made in heaven,” he told Senior Housing News.
Avenue Development has grown to $500 million in senior living projects, specializing in active adult, independent living, assisted living and memory care, and has established multiple family office relationships in recent years.
Family office investment firms have helped organizations build private investment relationships and maintain financial flexibility outside of traditional institutional capital groups.
“This flexibility often leads to more creative, market-sensitive decisions whether it’s repositioning a vintage asset, entering an underserved market, or selectively reinvesting in modernization,” said Priority Life Care Chief Investment Officer Dennis Murphy. “That said, the trade-off is a higher expectation for transparency and direct communication.”
Operators and industry stakeholders who spoke with SHN said these relationships offer more support and a closer partnership mentality than traditional investment groups, Mattingly said.
“It’s definitely an often more patient form of capital with longer term expectations and they’re investing in operators that they believe in and they want to continue to grow their wealth,” said National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) Head of Research and Analytics Lisa McCracken.
Senior living providers including Avenue Development, Cardinal Senior Management, Priority Life Care and Stellar Senior Living have worked on these relationships in recent years to spur growth and sustain operations.
Senior living ‘more sexy’ today as family offices share ‘generational mindset’
Investment conditions are continuing to improve in senior living, raising the industry’s prospects of working with new investor groups, McCracken said.
“From an investment perspective, [senior housing is] more sexy these days than it’s been in the past,” McCracken added.
A recent survey by Deloitte Global found that entities that represent family wealth of $100 million and greater could increase to over 10,700 groups by 2030. NIC found that 68% of family offices in the U.S. were started in 2000.
Another JLL survey from February found that more than three-quarters of investors planned to increase their senior living portfolios in 2025.
This maturation of senior living operators and family offices and their investment efforts are occurring simultaneously, and that could spur more family office investment in senior living, McCracken said.
“I think we’re going to see more of that evolution,” she added. “We want to educate family offices and educate operators on these types of alternative options.”
Cardinal Senior Living recently took on significant family office investment from a group based in Latin America, forming a joint venture that puts all entities of the business under the “same umbrella,” Cardinal Senior Management Co-Founder Joe Pohlen told SHN.
The York, Pennsylvania-based senior living operator was drawn to family office capital because of its “long-term nature,” as opposed to the sometimes shorter term limits with private equity or institutional capital partners, Pohlen said.
“They want to stay invested for decades, which aligns with what’s best for our residents and our business. It allows us to plan and operate with a generational mindset instead of focusing on short-term exits,” he said.
The company’s family office partner understands the complexities of establishing a business and views Cardinal’s operations not just through a “real estate lens.” That means Cardinal communities won’t be “forced into selling” just to net a return goal, Pohlen noted.
Family office investment goes from the ‘fringes’ to ‘major role’ in senior living
Family office investment efforts have gone from supporting senior living operators on “on the fringes” to taking on “major roles” in senior living operations, according to Stellar Senior Living Co-Founder Adam Benton.
Benton noted family offices in previous years offered support in early stage development capital to now becoming limited partners (LP) and co-general partner (GP), Benton noted.
Midvale, Utah-based Stellar Senior Living launched a new investment effort in 2024, raising a $25 million joint venture and equity investment vehicle. Part of that growth included family office investment, Benton told SHN.
“We were looking for a capital partner who could co-invest with us in new developments,” Benton said. “Family offices fit that need perfectly—their timelines align with the life cycle of senior housing projects, and they’re often more relationship-driven than institutions.”
These groups can help smaller operators seek growth and be less “rigid” and focused on long-term missions, Benton said. But it can be challenging to grow family office investment with multiple groups.
“It’s hard to scale across multiple families unless there’s a central structure or fund and expectations can vary widely,” Benton added.
Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Priority Life Care also recently launched an investment effort, which included seeking out family office investment. Today, “over half” of outstanding letters of intent on acquisitions for the company are with family office investment partners, Murphy said.
Priority Life Care views family offices as a “key component” to the company’s future capital strategy, given the investment dynamics on flexibility, deal size and market focus. This has included investments in secondary markets and smaller-scale projects in areas with “strong fundamentals but less competition.”
“As we pursue larger deals, I do see [family offices] increasing more as a co-GP as we enter [markets with] higher barriers to entry, Class A markets,” Murphy said.
Education is a two-way street for family offices and senior living operators, with providers needing to acclimate family office investors to the complexities of senior living, while operators must adapt to the unique structure of family offices.
“Senior living is a unique asset class,” Pohlen said. “Educating investors on the real risks and opportunities isn’t always easy. There’s definitely a learning curve.”
Being “a little different” than institutional investment, sometimes there are challenges in aligning expectations on risks of senior living, Mattingly noted. Family offices also rely on their operating partners and “really trust you” in using their capital to create shared value.
“A lot of this is education behind risk management,” Mattingly said, while also carrying different financial reporting expectations in “no standardized way” from one family office group to another.
As a result, the responsibility of educating family offices often falls on the operator, Murphy added.
“We view this less as a burden and more as an opportunity,” Murphy said. “It gives us a platform to demonstrate our expertise, build trust, and grow internal talent to support investor engagement.”
Family office ‘exactly what our industry needs’
In the years ahead, operators could soon diversify their bench of capital partners to include more family office investment, operators told SHN.
“Long-term family office capital is exactly what our industry needs,” Pohlen said. “Too many capital providers look at senior housing as a 5–7-year hold. Communities get traded like Pokémon cards, which hurts the reputation of our industry, creates mistrust among employees, and impacts residents.”
As the senior living industry continues to evolve and “proves itself,” Benton sees a “bright” future for family office investment in partnering with operators.
“I expect even more family offices to shift from the sidelines to strategic partners, especially those looking for impact and stability alongside returns,” Benton added.
