Brookdale Senior Living Seeks To Offload Nearly 100 More Communities By Mid-2026

Brookdale Senior Living continues to prune its senior living assets with a goal of reducing its portfolio to 550 communities by the middle of next year, according to interim CEO Denise Warren.

During the 2025 Global Health Care Conference by Jefferies, Brookdale leaders outlined plans to alter the size of the company’s senior living portfolio, further monetize the company’s HealthPlus program and create a path to lower leverage as asset sales and occupancy gains continue. 

As of June 30 , Brookdale reported a portfolio of 645 senior living communities in 41 states. As the Brentwood, Tennessee-based senior living provider seeks to trim its footprint to 550 communities, it also is increasing its ownership of a greater number of communities than in years past. Previously, Brookdale had approximately 50% of leased assets but will shift toward a mix of 70% owned by the end of “the middle of next year,” Warren said.

“We’ve been rationalizing our portfolio,” Warren said during the conference presentation. “We’ve really looked at the portfolios and or the communities within our leases.”

Brookdale’s occupancy exceeded 80% earlier this year, and that occupancy growth continued in August when it rose to 81.5%. Warren added the company is focused on increasing occupancy, capital deployment and “rationalizing our portfolio.”

“As we’ve gotten our SWAT teams out, we’ve differentiated communities and really put a high focus on getting the below 70% occupied communities above 80% because we want a strategy on pricing to make sure we are filling those units,” Warren said.

The company’s current same-store occupancy was 82.2% in the third quarter, an increase of 260 basis points compared to last year.

“We certainly do expect to get back to our pre-pandemic occupancy, our historical high occupancy of 89%,” Warren said.

In continuing to unwind from leases, Warren said Brookdale expects to “get a little bit of benefit” in improving the company’s overall operating leverage position combined with increased occupancy gains. Since late last year, Brookdale has offloaded a number of communities, including just under half of 120 communities covered in a previous master lease with Chicago-based REIT Ventas (NYSE: VTR). 

Brookdale has a goal of rolling out its HealthPlus care coordination platform to “just under” 200 communities by the end of 2025, Warren said in August. Brookdale has in the past noted that communities that have deployed HealthPlus have as much as an 80% reduction in resident urgent care visits and a 66% reduction in hospitalizations. 

The HealthPlus program aims to improve care coordination, care delivery and improve health outcomes for older adults living in Brookdale communities, with leaders noting the program was “important” in the sales process as families “love to hear outcomes” regarding their loved one’s condition while in senior living, according to Brookdale Executive VP General Counsel and Secretary Chad White.

Each HealthPlus community has an RN care manager that coordinates care for residents, including getting vaccinations, wellness visits and issues are communicated directly to primary care doctors and specialists, with the RN manager as an extra layer to coordinate care, White added.

“I think that we will continue to roll out as we work through the next few years, but we’ll also have an opportunity to continue improving resident satisfaction and outcomes, which we think ultimately will lead to longer length of stay,” White said.

The post Brookdale Senior Living Seeks to Offload Nearly 100 More Communities by Mid-2026 appeared first on Senior Housing News.