How Senior Living Organization Transforming Age Is Gearing Up For Growth

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Senior living nonprofit Transforming Age is preparing to kickstart new growth via development. Although the math remains unfavorable for development, “something has got to give.”

That’s according to Katie Pelczar, who joined the organization weeks ago as chief investment officer. Pelczar brought to her role more than 20 years of real estate investment experience in acquisitions, financing, strategy and large-scale development – and a belief that demand for senior living is tipping the scales in favor of growth. 

Pelczar’s hiring represents a moment where the organization is “clarifying” its impact on the wider world, she said. In addition to naming her as chief investment officer, Transforming Age announced a flurry of personnel moves including bringing in former Summit Vista CEO and Executive Director Mark Erickson as senior vice president of market rate communities.

“We see a lot of capital that has not traditionally been in senior housing getting really excited about senior housing,” Pelczar told Senior Housing News. “There’s a real story behind why it’s time to get out there and build products for more people.”

Currently, Transforming Age has about 75 communities, more than half of which are affordable senior housing properties.

Expanding to grow

Even if senior living organizations like Transforming Age aren’t breaking ground on new projects today, they are putting the pieces together now to run as soon as they hear the starting pistol. Along those lines, leaders believe the Bellevue, Washington-based nonprofit’s biggest immediate opportunities lie in the active adult sector and in creating footholds around the country where it can cluster communities and offer services in a hub-and-spoke model.

The organization’s most recent expansions have included the affiliation of Alegre Home Care, an agency that provides in-home care to older adults in the San Francisco Bay Area. Looking ahead, the organization is looking to grow even beyond its current footprint between Chicago and the West Coast, according to Frankie Pane, who is president of Transforming Age’s for-profit business-to-business arm, GSI.

“We will look at acquisition opportunities, ground-up development opportunities and third-party management opportunities,” Pane told SHN.

In 2025, Transforming Age has lined up several opportunities to grow in property management and development. The organization is also seeking new opportunities to expand its home care services.

In addition to Pelczar and Erickson, Transforming Age has this year added personnel to its accounting, IT, in-house development, human resources and marketing teams in anticipation of growth just ahead.

“We’re continuing to grow our team so that we are ahead,” Pane said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more consolidation in the industry, and when that happens, you need to be ready for it.”

Active adult fits with wider mission

Through GSI, Transforming Age is preparing to up its holdings in active adult, according to Pane. Many prospective residents desire a lifestyle-oriented living setting like, but that’s not the only reason why the senior living nonprofit is targeting the product type.

Growing in active adult also supports Transforming Age’s larger mission to serve as many older adults as possible through various touchpoints. And given that resident rates for active adult communities are lower than independent living on average, he believes active adult communities can also help create the kind of middle-market models that have been a “tough nut to crack” thus far.

“The biggest opportunity moving forward is going to continue to be active adult because of the affordability component,” Pane said. “Providing robust, active adult communities with a low cost basis when it comes to operating expenses and staffing and being very efficient, will really allow for a lot more small, affordable senior housing projects to go to market,” Pane said.

Pane added that there is sometimes a misconception that nonprofits like Transforming Age are locked into following their mission above all else. Although Transforming Age has a mission like other nonprofits, its leaders try not to limit the organization’s opportunities to the non-profit sector alone.

Through GSI, its management contracts and services with other nonprofits, Transforming Age is touching about $2 billion worth of active development over the next five years. The organization has grown in part by sourcing financing for projects via tax-exempt bonds.

“Being able to look at a given market and say, ‘This is the specific niche that is being missed,’ and having that flexibility is really valuable because we can approach at any level, or we can go to IL, AL, MC, we can go for profit, non profit,” Pane said. “We have every tool in our toolbox that we can deploy, unlike many other senior housing organizations.”

Another advantage for an organization like Transforming Age is that it can plug more of its revenue back into operations.

“Some of the best operators are the nonprofits, because they don’t have a capital provider that they have to provide returns to the way the for-profits do,” Pane said. “I would really like to see someday a lot more for-profit owners partnering with non-profit providers of property management services. In my opinion, they provide the best overall services with the most satisfied residents.”

A testament to that fact is that Pane personally owns six active adult communities in GSI and Transforming Age’s portfolio.

“My residents have never been happier, our occupancy has never been better, our margins have never been better,” he said.

He added: “At Transforming Age, everybody learns from everyone else. So, when we’re operating communities, we’re drawing from the expertise of the nonprofit folks. We can draw from the efficiency and return perspectives from the for-profit folks, and then we can really draw from the cost savings and efficiency in our affordable housing. We’re able to take the best of each of those areas and then roll them out.”

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