Margins have taken precedence as a top industry issue in recent years as operating costs have skyrocketed. But that doesn’t mean pre-pandemic margins are out of reach.
To Cogir USA CEO David Eskenazy, senior living operators still have a chance to regain margins in excess of 40% — the catch is, it won’t come easy.
“Can we possibly run a building at 40% or higher margins? We’ve done that for years, it’s still possible,” Eskenazy said on a recent episode of the Senior Housing News podcast Transform. “The way you do that is with significant discipline.”
And discipline is what Cogir — the senior living arm of Montreal-based Cogir Real Estate — is focused on in the aftermath of its acquisition of fellow senior living operator Cadence Living. The merger of the two companies created a new operating company with 60 communities and many more on the way.
Top of mind for Eskenazy and Cadence co-founder Rob Leinbach in 2023 is combining the strengths of both companies so that “two plus two equals five.”
“There’s not a lot you can do in terms of being aggressive in the current market,” Leinbach said. “So why not take that time to pause, sit down, take a deep breath and say, ‘How can we get strong, so that when those opportunities do come up in the future, that we’re ready to go?”
“Why not take that time to pause, sit down, take a deep breath and say, ‘How can we get strong, so that when those opportunities do come up…
