Ebenezer Looks To Pace, Senior Living Co-op Model Growth To ‘seize The Moment’ In 2025 

Newly-hired Ebenezer President and CEO Brett Anderson sees opportunity ahead for the Minnesota-based senior living provider to grow services and its burgeoning co-op development model.

Anderson joined Ebenezer in June of this year from senior living provider Ecumen. His background in senior living includes time spent as a registered nurse blending clinical experience with management and leadership for over a decade.

“I think I bring real energy and optimism about the future and I want to use that for two things: inspiring new leaders and career caregivers and being optimistic, to be inspiring and we’re at such a critical junctor demographically and economically where senior living can seize the moment with payors, health systems and inspire people to do this work,” Anderson told Senior Housing News.

Priorities for Ebenezer under Anderson’s leadership include staff and resident engagement, expanding partnerships and growing middle-market and affordable senior living. The operator also can leverage its Fairview Health Services affiliation to reach older adults living at home offering in-home care services or offerings like adult daycare.

Through this, Anderson also sees opportunities for Ebenezer to deploy cutting-edge technology to support a new reality for senior living and care as value-based care growth continues across the industry.

Anderson sees opportunities to expand within the organization’s Astoria co-operative development model. Ebenezer’s first co-op development is currently under construction, with a second project planned in early 2025 and a third project expected after that. Ebenezer also is focusing on repositioning older buildings for affordable housing.

“We’re also looking to expand our partnerships and our third-party management, so we’re looking to grow our footprint in states surrounding Minnesota and really the Midwest at-large and looking to deepen those partnerships as an equity investor,” Anderson said. “We’re going to be growing next year.”

Development has been stunted by less-favorable debt and capital constraints, and timelines have gotten longer in recent years. That is mixed with still-elevated construction costs, and Anderson sees opportunities to increase the company’s development pipeline through the co-op model. Layered on top of new development, Anderson also sees strategic acquisitions as a way to pursue growth as operators have been active this year in acquiring assets below replacement costs.

“We think the cooperative line for the middle market has a tremendous appetite for that ,” Anderson said. “It opens up housing stock, it keeps an owner-occupied building in their community.”

Anderson pointed to the recently updated “Forgotten Middle” study that highlights the increasing need for more affordable senior housing options, and true middle-market development as reasons enough to pursue organic growth.

The co-op model allows for incoming residents to participate in the ownership and equity of a property and creates a more affordable product for older adults seeking more cost-friendly living options.

Ebenezer currently operates 120 communities and over 10,000 units with plans to expand to the “upper Midwest” to continue to meet incoming demand. To meet that demand, Anderson sees a path forward in improving employee retention and “closing the back door” in reducing turnover through creating efficiencies in workflows through added technology to free up caregivers from administrative tasks to care for residents.

“We’re going to be investing in some key positions and additional support to be in a position to capture that next wave of growth,” Anderson said. “We’re making some plans to be able to have the people and the continued bench strength to meet the new demand.”

Increasing workforce support also means building up Ebenezer’s corporate support to better enable frontline teams, Anderson added.

He also sees opportunities to integrate more services offered by Fairview Health Services to help “keep people at home longer” through hospital-at-home programming and bringing in residents in need of increased care during recovery and rehabilitation. Anderson described Ebenezer’s relationship with Fairview as a “unique model” able to offer mental health, adult daycare, primary care and long-term care offerings for “niche groups that are needing some extra support.”

Ebenezer will also look to expand its care delivery and care navigation services to help older adults navigate the health care ecosystem expeditiously. Anderson added that Ebenezer would be closely monitoring the State of Minnesota’s 2023 legislation that will launch the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in 2025.

“We’re very interested in PACE next year which is really going to bring the full power of what Ebenezer has along with Fairview if the PACE program is going to move through here in Minnesota,” Anderson said. “We’re entering [2025] with a clear strategic vision on where we want to grow. That gives us a lot of optimism for 2025 continuing to focus on innovation, equality and to enrich the lives of older adults we serve.”

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