Brookdale Senior Living reported a year-over-year 300-basis-point boost to its consolidated occupancy for February.
Weighted average occupancy for the month increased from 73.3% in 2022 to 76.3% in 2023. February was the 16th consecutive month of year-over-year weighted average occupancy growth for the Brentwood, TN-based company.
At the same time, Brookdale reported a 70-basis-point decrease in weighted average occupancy for the first quarter as compared with the full fourth quarter. The company said the drop was consistent with pre-pandemic seasonality.
During a fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 earnings call last month, the company reported same-community senior living weighted average occupancy increased 370 basis points year over year and 70 basis points from the third quarter of 2022, to 77.2% in the fourth quarter. January’s weighted average occupancy represented an increase of 720 basis points since the start of the pandemic recovery in March 2021.
Brookdale attributed its occupancy increase to the company’s execution on its initiatives to rebuild occupancy lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the company’s goal to get every available residential unit into service at the most profitable rate, Brookdale President and CEO Lucinda “Cindy” Baier said during that call that the company intended to increase occupancy this year through targeted efforts, the implementation of “appropriate pricing actions” that consider inflationary pressures and competitive labor markets, improved labor productivity and reduced premium labor costs.
Brookdale operates and manages 673 communities in 41 states, with the ability to serve more than 60,000 residents.
