By Rebecca Wiessmann
This is the beginning of a series featuring Bill Pettit, titled Pivot with Pettit. Watch the first full episode here.
Bill Pettit’s journey from Princeton lacrosse captain to senior living visionary spans five decades, three careers, and an unwavering commitment to creating communities where seniors thrive rather than simply survive. He is not done yet, not even close.
Now, through his consulting and investment firm Black Dog Capital Advisors, the 70-year-old industry veteran is tackling what he calls his “new passion”: making quality senior living accessible to middle-income Americans.
Here is his story … in a nutshell.
A Princeton Education, an Oregon Dream
Born in the colonial college town of Princeton, New Jersey, Pettit enjoyed a childhood that blended rural living with access to world-class education and opportunities. His competitive nature, forged on the athletic fields of an all-boys boarding school in New York, would become a defining characteristic throughout his career.
But after graduating in 1971, Pettit made a decision that surprised many. Rather than following his father into the investment world of New York City, he convinced his new bride to pack up everything they owned and head west. Inspired by Ken Kesey’s novel “Sometimes a Great Notion,” Pettit deferred his acceptance to the University of Chicago’s business school and instead enrolled at the University of Oregon.
“Three days after we were married in the summer of 1971, we packed up everything we owned. We didn’t have any money, and we were headed to Oregon,” Pettit recalled.
The Banking Years: Success and Hard Lessons
After earning his MBA in finance and real estate from the University of Oregon in 1973, Pettit embarked on an 18-year banking career that would take him from Eugene to Portland to Seattle. He joined Seafirst Bank (later acquired by Bank of America) at a fortunate time — when U.S. banking deregulation was transforming the industry from a seniority-based system to one based on merit.
Pettit’s rise was meteoric. He moved from financial analyst to head credit officer of Seafirst Mortgage, then to chief administrative officer. Eventually, the bank tapped him to lead strategic planning and then made him chief financial officer.
Despite his success, Pettit found himself increasingly dissatisfied. “I found my life was going to committee meetings, board meetings, meeting very few clients of the bank,” he explained. “I love the ability to reach out and touch people.”
Building Merrill Gardens: Three Decades of Innovation
In 1991, Pettit’s career took its most significant pivot. The R.D. Merrill Company, a family-owned timber business spanning four generations, sought to diversify. Pettit was brought on to help chart a new direction, and in 1993, Merrill Gardens was born with a single community in Seattle.
What made Pettit’s leadership distinctive was his unwavering focus on the resident experience — unusual for someone with a banking background. “Not only is it a great business, but it is incredibly rewarding,” he said. “You change their lives. You really do.”
Over 30 years as president, Pettit grew Merrill Gardens into one of the nation’s largest senior living providers, with more than 70 properties spanning 20 states. The company earned multiple awards and became known for high-quality, yet affordable, senior housing.
Under Pettit’s leadership, Merrill Gardens pioneered innovative business models, including completing the first RIDEA (Real Estate Investment and Development for Elders Act) transaction in 2010. The company also expanded internationally, spending six years developing strategies for the Chinese market, where demographic trends and urban crowding were creating new demand for senior housing.
Throughout his tenure, Pettit maintained his focus on building community-centered environments that challenged negative perceptions of senior living. He partnered with Washington State University’s hospitality program to introduce students to senior housing as a career path, successfully converting 10-20% of each class by showing them the vibrant, engaging communities that modern senior living could offer.
The Black Dog Vision: Making Senior Living Accessible Again
Despite Merrill Gardens’ success, Pettit watched with growing concern as the economics of senior living increasingly squeezed out middle-income seniors. “Buildings got more expensive. Obviously, we needed to pay our team members well, but increasingly I saw what we started, which was accessible to middle-income seniors as well as more affluent, increasingly was becoming squeezed and squeezed,” he explained.
When the family chairman he’d worked with for 30 years retired, Pettit faced another pivotal decision. Rather than start over with new leadership, he chose to pursue his passion directly. In 2022, he retired from Merrill Gardens and founded Black Dog Capital Advisors with his son Billy, who had served as the founding president of Pillar Properties, Merrill’s multifamily development arm.
Two Tracks
Black Dog operates on two tracks. First, it provides strategic consulting to owners and operators struggling with post-COVID challenges, offering what Pettit calls “a fresh set of eyes and deep experience with value recovery.” Second, and more ambitiously, it’s developing a new model focused on active adult communities designed primarily for single seniors but welcoming to couples as well.
This active adult model represents Pettit’s solution to the affordability crisis. By focusing on more independent residents and unbundling services that higher-acuity communities require, he believes quality senior living can be made “easily affordable for middle-income seniors.”
“We’re going to focus on buying value-add assets in the senior space and redirecting them into the mainstream, and then active acquisition of active adult properties that can take advantage of accessing a much broader demand base for seniors,” Pettit explained.
The Road Ahead
At 70, Pettit is as energized as he was when he first left banking in 1991. “I’m just as excited as when I first started, when I got bored with banking and built a company, and now I’m on my third,” he said.
His optimism is rooted in demographics. With baby boomers entering their senior years in increasing numbers, Pettit sees “more money and profitable returns to capital in the next 5 to 10 years than we’ve seen to date.” But he acknowledges the industry faces significant challenges, including a difficult 24-36 month period ahead with restricted new supply due to inflation, interest rates, and construction costs.
The coming years will test whether Pettit’s vision of accessible, community-focused active adult living can deliver on its promise. But if his track record is any indication—from transforming a timber company into a senior living leader to pioneering new business models—this latest chapter may prove to be his most impactful yet.
For Pettit, the motivation remains unchanged from his earliest days at Merrill Gardens: changing lives, building community, and ensuring that quality senior living isn’t just for the affluent few. After nearly 50 years across three careers, he’s found that the most rewarding work isn’t about climbing corporate ladders or satisfying competitive urges—it’s about reaching out and touching people’s lives in meaningful ways.
Bill Pettit is an intellectual giant in an industry that calls for a high level of social stewardship. He is constantly thinking and rethinking the fundamental premises and practical outcomes of an industry that exists to improve the lives of older Americans and those whose careers are dedicated to ameliorating the challenges of aging.
Bill Pettit is also an investor, and it’s sad that the divide between not-for-profits and investor-initiateds prevents a shared vision of what that social stewardship could be and how best to bring us ever closer to achieving the ideal.
Kudos to Bill Petitt. Thank you for the wisdom of your career.