Senior Living Developer Engel Burman to Enter Florida, Expand New Luxury Brand

The Engel Burman Group is poised to make a push into the Sunshine State — including with a new senior living brand called Encore Luxury Living.

The Jericho, New York-based developer currently is in contract to buy a property in downtown Boca Raton, Florida. The company is also poised to go to contract for a site near Miami, and is negotiating to buy a site in Aventura, Florida.

These plans were shared at an Oct. 10 meeting of the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society (CIBS) of Long Island, by Engel Burman partners Steve Krieger and Scott Burman and President Jan Burman. Krieger confirmed the details in a followup interview with Senior Housing News. 

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While the plans are still in their early stages, the new properties would have a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care services. Amenities, total unit count and unit mix are still up in the air, but will be determined by the needs of the market.

All told, the company’s development plans in the state could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Krieger.

“South Florida is new for us,” Krieger told SHN. “We believe, with our expertise in operation, there is room for us to be successful in that market.”

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Engel Burman also recently launched a new senior living brand called Encore Luxury Living. Unlike what’s found in the company’s Bristal Assisted Living brand — which numbers 21 communities spread throughout New York and New Jersey — Encore is aimed at creating an experience that’s more in line with the services and amenities found at a high-end hotel.

The company’s first Encore-branded units opened at its campus in Jericho, New York, earlier this year. Looking ahead, the plan is to co-develop both its Bristal assisted living brand and its Encore brands in Florida.

“With Encore Luxury Living, we think we’re going to be very successful bringing out that model along with our assisted living model in Florida.”

Engel Burman has made a name for itself over the past 22 years by building age-restricted independent living communities and assisted living and memory care facilities on adjacent parcels. The company is currently focused on bringing its version of the continuing care retirement community (CCRC) to new markets, among other initiatives.

Its plans to expand outside Long Island are due in part to market saturation with respect to assisted living, as well as policies in New York such as high property taxes and rent control, Krieger and Burman said at the CIBS meeting.

Among the sites that Engel Burman is targeting in Florida are retail locations where a big-box store has gone out of business or where there is extra land, Krieger said at the meeting. In this regard, the company is seeking to take advantage of a growing trend in senior living, of redeveloping former retail locations.

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