With Growing Waitlist, Blakeford Senior Life Explores Growth Beyond Single Site

Single-site continuing care retirement community (CCRC) Blakeford Senior Life is exploring growing beyond its campus after three decades as a single-site.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has in 2025 notched a 97% occupancy rate, and is managing a waitlist of more than 200 prospective residents, according to Brian Barnes, president and CEO.

“If you want a two-bedroom, you’re probably waiting four years,” Barnes told Senior Housing News.

Blakeford Senior Life expanded its home and community-based services about 10 years ago to keep up with growing local demand for senior care services.

The organization’s in-home services include a nonmedical caregiving agency called Blakeford at Home that takes care of residents both on and off the campus, and a life-plan-at-home program called LiveWell by Blakeford. The operator has grown those services significantly since the start of the Covid pandemic, according to Barnes.

The organization before the pandemic also added to its campus a 50-unit independent living tower. The operator also renovated its campus to include a new wellness center and dedicated memory care units in an assisted living building.

All of those renovations were officially completed around mid-2024, and now Blakeford is beginning to plan its next steps.

At the moment, there is no more room on the existing campus for additional expansions. As such, Barnes said the organization is looking at expanding into either a satellite campus or expanding to a second campus, though whether that is through ground-up development or acquisition is a bit up in the air at the moment.

Other business expansion ideas being sought out include partnerships and taking on management contracts.

“We’re pretty open,” Barnes said. “We want to protect our capital, assets and investment that residents have made. There’s plenty of examples of organizations kind of compromising their residents’ investments to grow or expand … and we have no intention of doing that.”

While there’s no strict timeline on when Blakeford Senior Life plans to execute on growth plans, Barnes told Senior Housing News he anticipates a more solidified plan within the next six to nine months. Looking ahead for the remainder of 2025, the organization is focusing on managing its growing waitlist.

“We’re trying to really figure out how to manage that waitlist and keep people engaged,” Barnes said. “That might involve developing some future residency programs. We’ve been having those kinds of conversations.”

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