Former Watermark Chief Investment Officer Launches New Consulting Company Celly Senior Living

Former Watermark Retirement Communities Chief Investment Officer Bryan Schachter has a new consulting firm for senior living developers, investors and operators.

On Monday, Schachter launched Celly Senior Living. Through his new Arizona-based company, he is set to offer consulting services on a range of topics including senior living site selection and market feasibility, financial structuring and deal underwriting, operator evaluation and strategic partnerships, development and repositioning, project oversight and investor reporting.

Schachter left his previous post at Watermark Retirement earlier this year, months after Keppel fully acquired Watermark and named Paul Boethel as the operator’s new CEO after the company’s founders, David Freshwater and David Barnes, stepped back from their leadership roles.

So far, Schachter said the new business has garnered lots of interest, particularly from companies with small but growing senior living platforms or from companies that are interested in growing their own.

In addition to operations, Schachter has plenty of experience in development and can walk clients through things like underwriting, choosing partners and taking stuck projects to completion.

“I’m trying to be a value-add resource for stakeholders throughout the industry … a fractional CIO/SVP of development is the perfect way to frame it,” Schachter told Senior Housing News. “They get access to my experience, relationships, track record, reputation and skillset.”

Schachter is launching his company with a wealth of experience behind him. To date, he has experience closing more than $6 billion in transactions and executing on 70 projects across 21 states years in independent living, assisted living, memory care and mixed-use communities. His time at Watermark also put him on the forefront of several industry trends, including membership-based payment options and the influx of luxury communities.

The company’s name stems from hockey players spontaneously celebrating after getting a goal, also known as a “celly.” Schachter, who is a hockey fan and played the sport growing up, said he was partly inspired by the shape of the demand uptick the industry has in front of it.

“It’s a little nod to my love of sports and the hockey-stick demand that’s coming our way,” he said.

As he surveys the senior living industry today, he sees a landscape that is full of both challenges and opportunities. On the opportunity front, he believes that senior living companies have a great chance to raise penetration rates above their historical plateau of about 10% to 12% nationally. In particular, he said he believes there will be plenty of demand for high-end senior living communities from affluent prospects.

But those stubborn penetration rates also reflect a challenge in the form of barriers to developing middle-market senior living communities. If millions of Americans are priced out of senior living, then penetration rates may not increase much, no matter how much those older adults want to move into a community.

That is compounded by the fact that senior living operators must offer something different from before if they hope to attract the boomers, he added. That is doubly true for communities seeking to attract a more affluent clientele that are trading in a $2 million home to move into senior housing, for example.

“It can’t be run-of-the-mill retirement, it’s really got to be a different lifestyle,” Schachter said.

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