Our community partners at West Bay Senior Living, led by CEO Jim Biggs and COO Josh Johnson, are expanding with a new management company and a growing footprint in California. 

The executives behind West Bay Senior Living are pivoting to a new venture called Momentum Senior Living in a move that will set the stage for the company’s next evolution.

West Bay CEO Jim Biggs and COO Josh Johnson are forging ahead with the new management company but swapping roles, with Biggs as COO and Johnson as CEO. The new operating company is currently involved in four projects under construction in The Golden State, with others on the way. Momentum currently manages The Variel, an upscale senior living community in Woodland Hills, California.

Read the excerpt on how K4Connect’s technology is incorporated into the company’s long-term strategy >>

On the big challenges and opportunities ahead for senior living operators:

Biggs: Obviously, labor and staffing. I listen to this podcast and I know that’s a common theme.

It’s a little bit that way with food. LA fast food workers go up to $22 an hour next year. The water bill for The Variel, we just opened it up and it’s $79,000. Inflationary effects will continue to pop up and into our market basket, but we are somewhat fortunate that we’re able to work with some investors with long-term range.

So we obviously need to protect the margins, but we need to fill the building first. We’re really looking at this in nonconventional areas both for revenue and with cost containment, as well.

We are big fans of K4Connect and we are looking to leverage that. We’re taking a look at where other vendors are making money in our properties. We have beautiful, high-end properties — some in terrific markets — asking how we can do these things ourselves. So we’ve been through similar problems with inflation before and some hard times where it helps to have been around for a long time.

And unlike a lot of other companies, I think our investors like us, as we’re not doing it to boost our own pockets but we are doing it to help meet those goals for the communities. It’s a much longer-term perspective for us and those relationships are important.

You can read the full article or listen to the podcast via this link.