Adding Alzheimer's. The industry targets a growing market

The gaga, go-go early boom may be over for assisted living, but life most definitely goes on for owners and operators. True, money isn't as easy to come by as it once was, as Wall Street analysts and financiers worry about overbuilding and the quality of earnings. The competition is getting more intense and savvier daily. Fill-up time has lengthened, especially in secondary markets where barriers to entry are low. Most of the affluent suburbs that showed up in everybody's initial feasibility studies are now saturated with high-end assisted living facilities. And the capital crunch has turned many cash-strapped developers into eager sellers. But consumer demand keeps growing, and the demographics look even brighter 10 or 20 years down the line. The trick is to find new ways to distinguish yourself from your competition--and, perhaps, to attract financing. In this year's special section, we suggest several ways of accomplishing both of those goals.