When it comes to senior living communities, maintaining a welcoming and up-to-date environment is critical—not just for current residents but also to attract new ones. Capital expenditure (CapEx) dollars play a significant role in achieving this, yet allocating these funds wisely requires a strategic approach. Whether it’s a small renovation, an update to FF&E, or a larger-scale project, every decision can impact the community’s appeal and functionality. To give an expert opinion, we sat down with our President and Director of Design, Keri Moore-Muñiz, to tell you everything you need to know about preserving your CapEx Investment
Why should CapEx dollars be allocated to small renovations and FF&E updates even if it’s not a huge budget?
I think it’s important to allocate some dollars at the front door. And maybe a key area that residents use commonly throughout the day. AKA your dining rooms. People are shopping online now. I mean, it’s just something that’s not anything of the past just for Covid. It’s first and foremost, people are looking for the photos online, and if they’re not shopping online, they’re immediately walking in the front door. And the last thing you want is someone to walk in the front door and turn around. So I think before even people even hit the front door, they’re shopping to understand how well taken care of your interiors are, even though it may not be a reflection of your care, it’s just that initial reaction to get your perspective resident into the front door. And whatever family member or friend is shopping with them, if you go in and it feels very outdated, you’re like, let’s go to the next place. Even though they may have the best care in the town or city that you’re in, they’re just not the shiny new penny. So even if you’re updating a light fixture or taking down the old paint that’s aged out and just doing something fresher, I think will just help people get past that first impression and really start to have conversations that everyone’s there to have.
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Why engage an interior designer to help you budge and make decisions?
I think it’s important to engage a design consultant because we’re kind of the puppeteer, if you will. A lot of CapEx projects and renovation projects, as we know we’ve been doing for the last 4 or 5 years now, you can’t have all the money in the world to completely redo everything at once. So it’s our job to put our creative lenses on, and show you how you can stretch your dollars the farthest. So we might have to work with existing furniture. We may have to work with existing paint conditions. Maybe the lighting’s the biggest thing. So we’re going to look at it from a marketing perspective to keep that first impression. Whether it be maintenance, any type of sustainability for your furniture to hold up for commercial grade furnishings. But I think it’s really important for us to kind of put that all together. We’re kind of making a recipe for success, if you will, and kind of blending the old with the new. And sometimes people try to blend too much and it may make sense to pull back and do one area at a time. And really, it’s just a case by case basis. But I think when we approach every design, some of our clients were like, you know what? It’s not worth spreading your money thin and touching every space a little bit. Let’s stop and isolate these spaces. And then some campuses, they look just fine and it’s okay sprinkling upgraded design. And I don’t think it’s a one size fits all approach, honestly. We’ve had to be the most creative we’ve had to be, in renovation projects.
What is the process when a client hires 828id to help with CapEx and FF&E projects?
When we’re approached by clients, we kind of approach it in two different ways. So, it just kind of depends on what they think their budget is. Some of our clients we work with have a low budget and they’re like, what can you do to help us? So we’ve literally worked through photos and been able to make campus assessments preliminary FF&E budgets. We work with some of our partners in construction to help build those if that’s needed. And then some of them, it’s too much and they want to touch a lot more spaces, and have a little bit healthier budget number. And then we’ll go out and do a site walk. And really it’s kind of how quickly do you need it done, and what are your resources for consulting services? Because we do understand that sometimes we have to help be creative with, kind of speed to market solutions. And it really doesn’t warrant all the extra design cost and going out, to sites and different things like that. So it’s kind of again, a case by case basis, but we take several approaches to come up with a healthy solution that works for both our client and us financially.
How can owners / operators turn outdated properties around and maximize potential?
I think the biggest thing once we do approach a renovation, if you’re behind on your paint, start painting now. Alpacas a pretty safe whether you have a warm or cool palette. And don’t be afraid of white, right. Sometimes it’s just fresh is more, I would say. But I think if you can dwindle back and maybe use your local resources, whether it’s a staff member or family volunteer day to start painting, keep that first and foremost and kind of your maintenance, because it keeps construction costs down in the end. And the other thing is lighting. A lot of people forget, we’ve had some budget busters in lighting when a whole campus needs an LED retrofit. So I would encourage aged campuses that don’t have upgraded lighting and the light level’s really low, or they’re very incandescent and they feel kind of yellow, we’ve all been in those campuses. You can get retrofit kits for 30 bucks at Home Depot and you can kind of retrofit into some LEDs. And we’ve even helped clients buy some on Amazon and do like ten packs at a time where they can get their facilities, maintenance director to do swap out or they’re just going to slowly kind of do it. Those are the two biggest things: if you can do in-house painting and you can do, one for one retrofit to improve some of your existing light conditions, that’s going to get you way ahead of the game and maybe save some of those later on construction dollars.
How does 828id help their clients stretch their dollars?
Stretching dollars is unique for everybody. One campus that we had when you walked in, it felt very, very dated. We looked at a portfolio. One of our clients has several spread across Texas, and each of them are completely different. But one of them, we kind of have similar FF&E budgets. But really, we went into the dining room and said, “These dining chairs actually look really good. We could probably save you ten, $15,000 in dining chairs if we keep them, and then maybe we can address the ceiling or add some texture to it.” So some of the budgets, when we kind of try to copy and paste, which we don’t do, a lot. The clients when they do their budgeting and they’ve got a portfolio, they try to copy and paste, we can maybe put those dollars to another project or sprinkle them amongst other projects. So again, if we can evaluate and say, hey, the dining chairs don’t need to be replaced, but let’s go ahead and replace the flooring and build a feature wall or different things like that. So, we have to creatively identify solutions in every single space and room that we’re doing because it’s like I said, not a one size fits all. It takes us longer to identify those. And the back and forth with the owner or the client operator that we’re dealing with to explain to them, show them images. It’s a lot more design consulting hourly, honestly, than it is for new builds. But, we try to be very creative and, and literally it’s a push and pull constantly in every single space. Your front entry loungers may be great, but you’ve got to remove that wall covering. I mean, it’s just eating you up at the front door, like turnaround kind of thing. So it’s just literally, give and take through every single space because you might walk in down the hall and it be beautiful or it may not. So, it’s, it’s unique in every single room, which makes it challenging.
Can you highlight a recent CapEx project?
Retail Estates is a campus that we just finished renovating. And I think it’s a prime example of CapEx budgets where a client gave us he said, Keri, I’ve got $80,000. What can you do with it? And so I’m like, send me. This is one of the clients that we just work through photos. He understands. He trusts us with design. We can literally take the images, tell him what he needs, and he’s like, okay, we’ll do it because he knows that we have his best interest at heart, and we spend your money like it’s our money and we tell him where to use it. And so, it was an instance where we went through and did typical paint throughout. The light levels were good. We updated the front lobby furniture, gave a multi-purpose furniture because the old dining furniture was there. We kept the dining room furniture. We kind of just data sprinkled throughout. But I think that’s probably one of our clients that’s the quickest speed to market, because he’ll just tell us, here’s the amount of money. I trust you as a design consultant. You tell me the best way to use it, and we’ll do what we can to support on the construction end. If you need a new light fixture or lighting because furniture, I feel is one of the most expensive investments. And it’s very hard to give you something off the shelf in retail that may not perform to the commercial standards that we need for safety and long term quality for residents. So that was probably one of the quickest ones we’ve ever done. And it’s very rewarding to know that we have clients that trust us, we continue to work with them. And time is of the essence, right? The quicker they can get your campus looking better and refreshed, the quicker you can get the occupancy rates up. So we’re just thrilled with how that one turned out. And the process that was given to us and the trust is fantastic. So it was one of our favorite ones and it was quick and perfect.
Preserving your CapEx investment in senior living communities goes beyond simple updates—it’s about strategic planning, creative solutions, and maximizing your budget’s potential to create spaces that attract and retain residents. Ready to elevate your community’s appeal and functionality? Contact 828id today and let us help you turn your vision into a reality.
