Seniors Symposiums Ensure Builder Has Information to Enter 50+ Market - 3/8/2004 - Real Estate Education Training Schools Conferences

Seniors Symposiums Ensure That Builder Has Information, Insight to Enter 50+ Market

Two NAHB conferences about the 50+ housing market were just the right venue for a St. Louis-based builder to get the information he needed to enter the active adult market — and save himself from heading off in the wrong direction.

Attending the 2002 and 2003 Building for Boomers & Beyond: Seniors Housing Symposiums gave Stephen Dickhut, of American Midwest Development Corp., a better understanding about boomers — the largest generation in U.S. history at 77.5 million — and their diverse housing needs.

Dickhut became interested in the seniors market several years ago when the oldest boomers were first entering their early- to mid-50s “I had read some of the demographics at that time and knew that this was going to be the hot market for the next few decades,” Dickhut said. “If you’re not building for the boomer generation and their senior parents, you’re missing a great opportunity.”

But Dickhut wanted to know more than just demographics and opportunities. He wanted to know as much about what to expect as he could learn. So he joined the NAHB Seniors Housing Council in 2002 and quickly signed up for that year’s seniors housing symposium in Orlando. A year later, he went to Indian Wells, CA, for his second symposium.

“Attending the seniors housing symposiums was one of the smartest moves I’ve made,” Dickhut said. “The education sessions were first-rate. In addition to hearing the latest research and trends, I received practical information from industry experts about how to design and develop an active adult community and how to market and sell to seniors.”

Not only was the information useful, Dickhut was impressed by the speakers. “They didn’t just tell me what I wanted to hear,” Dickhut said. “They were honest and precise about their experiences. As a newcomer to the active adult market, I wanted to hear about all the potential obstacles as well as their secrets to success.” Which is exactly what they talked about.

Dickhut also found the symposiums’ tours — each seniors symposium includes a tour of nearby active adult communities — just as valuable as the speakers’ experiences. Past tours have included stops at award-winning communities from respected builder/developers such as Avatar Communities, Lennar Family of Builders, LINC Housing Corp., Pulte Homes/Del Webb and Shea Homes for Active Adults. And Dickhut got to examine the communities close-up and from a builder’s perspective.

“It’s interesting to see what other builders around the country are doing,” Dickhut said. “I picked up some good ideas that I plan to incorporate into my community.”

With all that information and insight under his belt, Dickhut and American Midwest, a real estate firm specializing in multifamily residential investments, decided to take the plunge. “When we started thinking about an active adult community, our objective was to develop senior rental apartments,” Dickhut said.

They had a parcel of land in the Kansas City area, but apartments didn’t really work on the property, Dickhut explained. So the company changed direction. It recently submitted plans to the area planning and zoning boards and is currently awaiting approval to build an active adult community in the Kansas City area featuring nearly 200 for-sale “cottages” ranging from 1,100 to 1,300 square feet.

Dickhut credits the NAHB Seniors Housing Council and national seniors housing conferences with helping his company make the right decisions when entering the boomer market. “Since we’re doing this for the first time, we needed as much information as possible,” Dickhut said. “The seniors housing symposium was, and continues to be, a tremendous resource for our company ”