When it comes to the design of apartment homes, DeFrancis says Baby Boomers are used to having additional space, especially downsizers or suburban renters. Cortland Partners' designs its active living homes with spacious, open floor plans that include flexibility for onsite, secure storage to allow them easy access to their belongings, especially if they are downsizing.

“Finally, the decision-making process for most of this demographic is very different from your traditional renter, who tours four to five communities in a weekend and makes their selection after one tour,” DeFrancis says. “We see touch points and tours increasing with boomers, so operationally it has forced us to challenge some of our benchmarks and industry standards on lead management.”

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Ultimately, he argues, the burden falls on multifamily owners to re-educate themselves on the level of customer service required to match the needs of this broadening renter pool. By creating a demographic-focused offering with its Attiva Active Living communities, he feels the firm inherently creates a lifestyle and community geared towards groups of people with similar values, life experiences, and goals for the next stage of their lives, while also meeting this generation's desire for maintenance-free, stress-free, social, independent living.