National Development Advances Growth Plans With Partner Benchmark Senior Living

At a time when other senior housing developers are pulling back, firm National Development sees opportunities to grow.

The Newton, Massachusetts-based firm announced it has broken ground on a new project for an 86-unit assisted living and memory care community in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. National Development expects to wrap up construction in the summer of 2026, with residents beginning to move in the early fall.

The company also acquired Whisper Woods of Smithtown, a 125-bed assisted living and memory care facility in Suffolk County, New York. The developer is undertaking its new growth as part of two joint ventures with Waltham, Massachusetts-based Benchmark Senior Living.

The recent announcement represents the 34th senior housing project the firm has taken on, and despite the challenges that have arisen since the Covid pandemic, the company still sees favorable conditions to grow in the New York and New England metropolitan areas, Chief Investment Officer Andrew Gallinaro told Senior Housing News.

The metro areas are densely populated and contain some underserved prospective residents, with Scotch Plains being one such example. Current development challenges also present barriers to entry for less-savvy companies despite the huge demand upside ahead.

“It takes a lot of effort and time to acquire these sites and title these sites, design these projects and build these projects,” Gallinaro said. “On the one hand, it may seem like a challenging environment, [but] now is probably a good time to be doing what we’re doing.”

National Development is also looking to break ground on two additional projects in 2025, and the firm also is in pre-development for a number of projects with aspirations to break ground in 2026.

National Development plans to continue working with Benchmark Senior Living, and Gallinaro said the two companies have an extensive history dating back decades. Recently, the two have reconnected and joined forces to pursue new opportunities.

While National Development works in a variety of industries, Gallinaro said the firm’s senior housing developments have remained its most consistent over the years, despite the increased expenses for material and the rising cost of capital the sector has experienced over the past several years.

“If you go back and look at our activity over a longer period of time, our investment levels and number of projects in seniors housing have actually always been really consistent, whereas, in other product types we’ve been sort of more reactive to market cycles,” he said. “We’ve always been very committed to the sector and we’re leaning in even further because we think there’s an opportunity now, just based on some of the disruption that’s occurred over the last few years.”

National Development’s remainder of 2025 is going to be focused on acquiring additional existing communities and add to potential development sites to its pipeline in New York, New Jersey and New England.

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