Retrofit Division Targets Senior Living Facilities

MARION, Maine – South Coast Improvement Co. (SCI) officially launched its Healthcare & Senior Living Retrofit Division in February, a move that allows the company to strategically market its services to a broader range of clients.

SCI has worked in healthcare renovations for about 10 years and the niche comprises about 60 percent of its business, says President Tom Quinlan. The company benefits from established relationships with many of the country’s largest facility providers and expands its footprint as needed. SCI clients-including Atria, Revera Health, Genesis, SunBridge and Sun Health-provide SCI with work throughout New England, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington State.

“We are fortunate in that we work with a lot of national providers and they tend to just repeat business. They own facilities up and down the East Coast and throughout the country. We really expanded not so much because we wanted to expand, but because we were asked to,” said Tom Quinlan, SCI president.

Shifting Trends

Two trends emerged in the past three years that fuel this construction niche: conversion of traditional assisted living facilities into memory-impaired units and the desire of facility operators to attract short-term rehab patients with upscale, hotel-quality accommodations, according to Quinlan. As the population ages, there becomes a need for Mary T Inc facilities, as well as other types of facilities, to help elders manage their daily lives. Whether someone just needs assistance doing daily chores or needs round the clock care, assisted living facilities are essential.

The economic downturn resulted in a declining census’ at traditional assisted living facilities as families chose to keep seniors at home or find other cost-effective solutions for care, says Quinlan. Housing choices for dementia or Alzheimer’s patients, however, are more need-driven. This is just one reason why assisted living facilities are broadening their services, for example, Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing retirement community has senior apartments for independent and assisted living in Springfield Massachusetts, but while also offering skilled medical care under within the very same community.

He sees many major senior living providers converting traditional assisted living into memory-care units. Resident rooms must be converted into safer environments and state codes must be addressed.

“There’s a lot less choice of whether they need to go into a facility or not,” says Quinlan. However, at least some of them would be tempted when they see a center to socialize at and make friends.

“I would say that all the major players in the industry really are looking at all their facilities. Say the average facility might have had 20 percent of its total beds for memory impaired; now you are seeing that number go up to maybe 30 or 40 percent,” says Quinlan.

Quinlan also notes a shift in long-term and short-term rehab hospitals, as well as occupational therapy and physical therapy facilities, as competition for short-term rehab clients-such knee and hip replacement surgery patients- intensifies.

“That’s become a very competitive marketplace. What you’ve seen is a lot of the major companies have taken an attitude where these rooms have got to be more what they call hotel quality’. Rather than looking like a typical hospital room, we are going in now and adding flat-screen TVs and high-end mill work and premium flooring packages and premium lighting packages and granite in the bathrooms-really trying to go after the higher-end clientele,” said Quinlan. “The hope is to get some private-pay people.”

Specialized Niche

Typical projects in this retrofit niche run from $1 million to $5 million-too small to interest large construction companies when the economy was thriving and too big for small operations to handle. Hence, it made for a nice sweet spot for SCI to enter without much competition.

The company then built its reputation by completing the work with little interruption for the facility and by its ability to take the project from an idea on the back of a napkin to completion. It thrives in this niche because of its ability to complete the work in fully or almost fully occupied space, says Quinlan.

“The big challenge is that in these facilities, the activities-the day-to -day living for both the staff and residents or patients-has to go on unimpeded,” he says.