One of the ways by which Caddis is working toward improvement is through branding. Signor points out that the term "Heartis" – with "heart" as a major focus – tends to be more upbeat "versus a lot of names out there dealing with falling leaves or some sort of foliage," he says, with a laugh. "Those feel a bit old. We don't want to feel old. We want to feel fresh and useful, and to provide as youthful an environment as we can for our residents."

Interestingly enough, it's not so much the baby boomers that are driving this trend. Certainly this upper end of the baby boom demographic will hit the age of 70 beginning in 2016. Still, "that's not old," Signor comments. "It's the baby boomers' parents that are driving the change."

As those baby boomers move toward the age in which they'll need the skilled nursing care, more opportunities will arise for developers such as Caddis Partners. The problem, however, is that others will jump into the market as well, and those others are likely to treat senior housing like commercial real estate as opposed to a healthcare service. In other words, it's not so much the type of building that goes up, as much as it's the organization with which the developer is partnering to deliver a service to the elderly.

To explain this more specifically, Signor compares what he calls the fragmented senior housing sector to the huge (and also fragmented) hospitality sector. In hospitality, there are many developers, but only a handful of quality hotel operators worth collaborating with. "I believe the same is true in senior housing," Signor says.