Eclipse Senior Living Goes High End with New Evoke Brand

Eclipse Senior Living is making good on its multi-brand strategy with the launching of a high-end independent and assisted living offering dubbed Evoke.

The Lake Oswego, Oregon-based company announced the news on Tuesday. The brand’s first development will break ground in Portland, Oregon, before the end of the year, with an expected early 2021 opening.

Evoke will eventually add memory care capabilities, Eclipse CEO Kai Hsiao told Senior Housing News.

Eclipse has two other brands under its corporate umbrella: Embark, a middle-market independent living brand with five communities in Florida, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Texas; and Elmcroft, a middle-market independent living, assisted living and memory care brand with 103 communities in 22 states.

The name Evoke is meant to bring to mind the essence of the surrounding community through architecture and design, as well as ties to local food and beverage trends, culture and art, Hsiao told SHN.

Evoke Portland will feature woodwork from the Pacific Northwest, coffee from local roasteries, wines from nearby wineries and beers from local breweries. Eclipse is also working on other food partnerships with ties to Portland’s locavore community for dining, as well as area organizations to inform Evoke Portland’s programming.

Eclipse is working with Portland-area developer Bennett Development; Salem, Oregon-based architecture firm CB Two Architects; and San Mateo, California-based senior housing design specialists, Warner Design Associates, on the Portland community. Eclipse will have an ownership stake in the community and operate it.

Eclipse is scouting markets across the country for future Evoke communities, and wants to work with local firms once sites are secured, Hsiao told SHN.

“We’re looking for [firms] who know their markets and can bring out local flavor,” he said.

Hsiao did not offer details about Eclipse’s plans for expanding the Evoke brand, except to say that scale will be driven by the markets more than a preconceived timetable.

Construction of Evoke Portland also marks the start of more ground-up development across Eclipse’s brands. Eclipse was initially formed to operate the existing Elmcroft portfolio, and began the the Embark brand through an acquisition as well.

Hsiao said adding to the Evoke portfolio through acquisitions is also on the table, if the right asset can be bought and repositioned for the right price.

Eclipse is one of several senior living brands implementing multi-brand strategies in order to capture a wider market share at different price points. This is being driven by anticipated demand for senior housing among baby boomers, many of whom are entering retirement with less savings and higher debt to afford market-rate senior housing.

Chicago-based Pathway to Living has found success venturing into high-end senior living with its Aspired Living brand, as well as the middle market assisted living with its Azpira Place brand. Denver-based Solera Senior Living has both its core Solera brand — which is high-end, private-pay — and the even more luxurious Solera Reserve.

Solera is partnering with Chicago-based developer McCaffery Interests on a $75 million senior housing community in Kensington, Maryland, which Solera will operate under the Solera Reserve brand.

Hsiao believes baby boomers, which he calls the “Unspoken 88” in reference to the nearly 88% of seniors not yet in the senior housing space, are less homogenous than previous generations and will demand personalization in their senior housing choices.

“The old adage of ‘one size fits all’ senior living no longer works,” he said.
Interested in learning more about multi-brand strategies in senior living? Check out SHN’s deep-dive report here.