Earlier this month, Foundry Commercial announced a new deal to merge senior living providers Spring Arbor and Allegro into a new operator called Allegro Living. Now comes the fun part, according to Doug Schiffer, who will lead the newly combined operator as president and CEO.

In the coming year, both companies will combine their operations and emerge as Allegro Living with 53 senior living communities operating under multiple brand names. Prior to the merger announcement, both companies had their own “secret sauce,” Schiffer said.

Allegro had developed a reputation for high-end, purpose-built communities, and Spring Arbor brought to the table the backing of national real estate firm Foundry Commercial and its capital resources. The companies also had complementary geographic footprints in 13 states located in the U.S. Midwest, Southeast, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

Leaders from the two companies began talking about a possible merger last year at an industry conference, and quickly realized they shared some complementary strengths. Allegro had a concentration of communities in Florida, while Spring Arbor and Foundry had a footprint in the Mid-Atlantic. At the same time, Allegro had paused new development given construction challenges, and was seeking to bring in a new partner for acquisition capital or third-party management opportunities.

“We realized that Allegro was in markets that we would really like to access, and vice versa,” Foundry President of Healthcare Services Kevin Maddron told Senior Housing News. “It kind of snowballed into a much bigger conversation where we said, ‘Why don’t we just do this together?’ We both have very strong organizations, so on a combined basis, it will really be a one plus one equals three.”

With the initial announcement behind them, Spring Arbor and Allegro are currently combining their metaphorical condiments to “create a new sauce,” according to Schiffer. The end goal is to create a new company with multiple brands located in different markets and services ranging from active adult to memory care, all unified under the Allegro Living umbrella.

“Our goal throughout the year 2025 is to work through all these different integrations and to really be one operating company,” Schiffer told Senior Housing News.

This is not Spring Arbor’s first time bringing new communities into its management umbrella. In 2022, Foundry Commercial acquired the Spring Arbor platform from HHHunt. A year later, Foundry upsized the platform by adding 16 more communities.

“We’ve done some similar acquisitions in the past,” Maddron told SHN. “There will be some new ideas as we work together.”

This year, leaders with the newly combined operator are examining the two companies’ processes and workforces to mesh them together. In the coming months, the two companies will examine and potentially retool everything from 401(k) benefits to which insurance vendors they work with.

Along the way, they might add a few new non-leadership roles focused on the senior living resident experience and gain some new shared expertise. For example, Allegro is bringing to the table its years of experience developing senior living communities, something that Spring Arbor and Foundry had previously lacked.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun looking at aspects of the former pure Allegro and the former pure Spring Arbor and finding that equilibrium,” Schiffer said.

Maddron added: “When I look in the future, as we get past the integration, we’re excited to access new markets and new opportunities we wouldn’t have had otherwise, and to really meet the needs of our capital market back-of-the-house processes.”