A number of real estate private equity firms have invested more than $1 billion into this new category that does not even have a name!

By Jacquelyn Kung

The newest product class in senior living actually isn’t really new . . .

We just haven’t created a name for it yet.

Huge Dollars

Over the last two years, Greystone, Carlyle, and other real estate private equity firms have invested more than $1 billion into this new category that does not even have a name. But huge dollars are betting on it. There must be a reason.

What Senior Living Executives Want

But get this: some of our very own senior living CEOs described their ideal retirements just like this new unnamed category during a panel discussion at the Senior Living Innovation Forum:

  • Urban

  • Tons of things to do in the area: shows, restaurants, etc.

  • Clean lines and updated universal-design condos

  • In other words, put your bags down and go travel the world

Ok, stop being so obscure . . . WeWorks — the national highly successful coworking company — has launched a new “thing” they call WeLive communities.   

What’s more, the Wall Street Journal just did us a favor and started profiling this category last year. (Of course, they slapped Millennial in their article name to get more clicks.) Here is one article and here is another.

With a little twist, this could be the new senior living thing.

Crazy Idea or Something Else?

Granted, the space is a little tight for Boomers and those age 75+ with a 4,000 square foot house of furniture to squeeze in. But in the throes of the article and subsequent conversations, it was revealed that the aging population is gravitating towards these WeLive spaces or at least small condos in the heart of city life.

The bottom line is this: Seniors are also moving in. Or next door in the urban high rises. Or nearby at age-friendly condos built by massive real estate private equity funds seeing the trends in aging.

So given the creativity of this forum audience, how about doing a naming ceremony now? Let’s start it off: maybe “WeLive for Boomers and Beyond”?

What other names can you think of for this new category of senior living?